Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Pakistan, EU Informal Summit, EU Finance and Avian Flu
Pakistan
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) drew journalists’ attention to the fact that three RAF Chinook helicopters were going out to Pakistan today to help in the region.
EU Informal Summit
The PMOS also updated people on the EU Informal Summit. He said that the Prime Minister was formally inviting the EU Leaders today to the Informal Summit, and his letters of invitation set out the objectives and the format of the Summit. The PMOS drew journalists’ attention to certain parts of the letter where the Prime Minister said that he proposed "…as the theme of our discussion, the opportunities and challenges of globalisation. How do we meet the competitive challenge and maintain the security of our citizens in a world of unprecedented movement…..". At the Informal Summit, President Barroso would present a Commission Paper that was due to be published later today. Based on that paper, the Prime Minister had proposed the following questions to frame the discussion:
- What were the reactions to the Commission’s analysis of the scale of the challenge facing Europe?
- How could we best provide both jobs and growth and social solidarity? What was the modern way to social justice?
- How could the EU support the efforts of member states in this area? Should it be doing more together in areas such as research and development, and university-level education….?
- What more should Europe do to maximise the personal security of our citizens?
On future financing, the Prime Minister had said that that we had consulted widely and he believed there was a collective will to reach agreement in December. The Commission was issuing some new ideas today to kick-start the negotiations. In the letter, the Prime Minister had also said that "I believe agreement can and should be reached at the December Council - and I will make every effort personally to achieve it by then, including through personal contact with each of you. I will update you further briefly at the meeting on how we are taking this forward through November. But I hope we can avoid getting into detailed discussions of the future financing issue at Hampton Court. There are real challenges on globalisation that we must address".
EU Finance
Asked why the Prime Minister was "so keen" not to hold any discussions on future financing, the PMOS said that as he had said yesterday, it was a question of getting the horse and the cart in the right order. As the Prime Minister had set out in June, the challenges facing Europe were how we addressed the opportunities and "threats" of globalisation. Therefore, we needed to address those broader questions before the particularities of the details of the budget could be addressed. What could not happen, however, was to allow the particularities of the budget dictate how the broader question was addressed. The PMOS said that in this country, we tended to start everything from the rebate, but as the Prime Minister said in June, the rebate was only a symptom of the overall problem, but it was not the problem itself. The problem was how did we address challenges of globalisation today and how did that impact on the EU’s priorities
Asked who would be representing Germany at the Summit, the PMOS said the invitation had been sent to the current Chancellor, but it would be a matter for the German Government who represented them.
Put to the PMOS that the expectation was that it would still be Chancellor Schroeder, the PMOS said he heard what the journalist was saying, but it was a matter for the German Government.
Put to the PMOS that in the letter, the Prime Minister was confident of securing a deal on future financing by December, but given the differences there were in Brussels in June, what progress had been made since then, the PMOS replied that the important thing was that we took this in sequence. We were now in October, and December was two months away. Therefore, let us take the Informal Summit, and discuss and agree our overall priorities, and then move to the detail of the budget. Let us not try and do it the other way around. That was the difference of our approach. The PMOS said that what next week was not about was the budget, rather it was about the broader question of agreeing the priorities. The PMOS said he was not going to give people a running commentary from now until December on how we thought the patient was; we would deal with the state of the patient in December.
Put to the PMOS that would this not prepare the ground by agreeing the broad strategic priorities, the PMOS replied that what a discussion about how we faced globalisation did was shape the debate within which people could then move onto the subject of the budget. The important thing was that we took the debate on globalisation very seriously.
Asked if the Prime Minister supported President Barroso’s proposals on globalisation, the PMOS said that the paper was the Commission’s paper. In terms of the focus of globalisation, however, the questions that the Prime Minister had posed that came out of the paper suggested the Prime Minister believed it was an important Commission paper, and one which opened up a discussion at the Informal Summit in the way that we had wished.
Avian Flu
Asked for further details about this afternoon’s meeting on avian flu, the PMOS said it would be better to let the meeting take place first. However, what was important was that the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the Government both understood where we were on the situation, because it was not a new subject, and there had been contingency plans and discussions for some time on this issue. It was important that we were both on the same page.
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