EU Co-operation

HC Deb 25 February 1998 vol 307 cc258-9W

Angela Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what are the priorities of her Department in respect of EU co-operation for the United Kingdom Presidency of the European Union; and if she will make a statement on how she intends to take them forward. [29626]

Clare Short

During the UK Presidency, we will seek to improve the poverty focus and effectiveness of the EC's programmes. Our top priorities are to agree the EU negotiating mandate on the future of the Lomé Convention, which governs the aid, trade and political relations between the EU and 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific States, and to secure the EU's commitment to the OECD's 21st Century Strategy for poverty eradication.

Negotiations on the content of the EU's Lomé negotiating mandate are under-way in Council and we are seeking to ensure that poverty eradication is at the heart of the mandate. We are planning to discuss how to put the 21st Century Strategy into practice in the EU's programmes at a high level seminar which will be held on 17 March in Brussels with Development Ministers from Member States, appropriate European Commissioners and representatives of European Parliament Development Committee.