Written question asked by Lord Bowness (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Triesman (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 June 2005.

European External Action Service

Question: What communications have been (a) received from the European Commission or the Council Secretariat or (b) tabled at formal or informal meetings of Ministers or officials regarding the proposed external action service which it is reported will be considered at the June Council.

Answer: In the context of the preparatory discussions of the proposed European External Action Service, the Government received one "issues paper", in March, presented jointly by High Representative Solana and Commission President Barroso. This paper was discussed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Brussels although no formal conclusions were drawn. The Government have also received five technical information notes from the Council Secretariat covering legal status, personnel issues, budget, administration of the service and management of the overseas delegations. These technical notes were discussed at official level, again without formal conclusion. The Commission and Council Secretariat will provide the June European Council with a joint progress report on the official level discussion so far but we do not expect there to be any substantive discussion of this issue by Foreign Ministers or heads of state and government. We shall place the joint progress report and the March "issues paper" in the library of the House once we have received the final texts. There have been no formal or informal meetings of Ministers which have discussed this issue.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 249; 672 c75WA
Session: 2005-06
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP 05/702
Tuesday, 14 June 2005
Deposited papers
House of Commons
House of Lords; EU External Action Service
Thursday, 21 July 2005
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: EU common foreign and security policy Diplomatic relations EU external relations