HC Deb 12 December 1996 vol 287 c302W
Mr. Matthew Banks

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Council of Ministers has adopted the letter of amendment No. 2 to the preliminary draft general budget of the European Union for 1997. [9184]

Mr. Oppenheim

I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 5 December,Official Report, columns 744–46. The Council adopted the letter of amendment No. 2 to the preliminary draft general budget of the European Union for 1997 at its meeting on 19 November. It has now been passed to the European Parliament as the letter of amendment No. 2 to the draft general budget of the European Union for 1997.

In agreeing this proposal I waived the United Kingdom's scrutiny reserve. I did so because the letter of amendment No. 2 formed an integral part of a package with which the Council aimed to secure the European Parliament's agreement to a budget for 1997 in which total payments would be frozen at 1996 levels in cash terms. Such an outcome would clearly be in the national interest.