ECOFIN (Hansard, 21 March 1997)

§ Mr. Oppenheim

I represented the UK at the Economic and Finance Council—ECOFIN—of the European Union in Brussels on 17 March.

The Council carried out an examination of the revised convergence programmes of Germany and France for the period 1997–2001. The German strategy of pursuing budgetary consolidation while promoting growth and employment through structural reforms was welcomed. The Council also welcomed the objective in the French programme of reducing the Government deficit in the medium term and the measures they have proposed to achieve this.

The Council agreed to the reactivation of previously agreed balance of payments lending to Romainia. Lending to Bulgaria was discussed, but no conclusion reached and the matter will be considered again at a future meeting.

The Council recommended that the European Parliament should grant the Commission discharge for the 1995 budget. However, the Council noted that standards of financial management of the EC budget remained low, and looked forward to the effect of measures in the Commission's sound and efficient management 2000 initiative to improve resource management. A progress report on this initiative is due in June.

The Commission presented proposals for an energy products directive. I made it clear that any proposals which would require the UK to introduce new taxes on gas, electricity or coal would be unacceptable.

Numbers and proportion of part-time employees
	Male	Female
	Number	Percentage of all employees	Number	Percentage of all employees
June 1971	n/a	n/a	2,757,000	34
June 1980	n/a	n/a	3,919,000	42
June 1990	999,000	8	4,677,000	44
June 1996	1,235,000	11	4,904,000	46

A more detailed breakdown on part-time work by number of hours and gender is available in the attached tables which have been taken from the New Earnings Survey. Copies of the New Earnings Survey itself are available in the House of Commons Library. I will arrange for a copy of the tables to be placed in the House of Commons Library.