The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: Edinburgh European Summit

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Ruud Lubbers – 7 December 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Ruud Lubbers, held in Edinburgh on Monday 7th December 1992.

    QUESTION:

    I think you talked about the Danish position, can you say something about that issue?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We talked about the whole range of issues at Edinburgh and beyond Edinburgh. We ran through the agenda. We looked at the question of Denmark and future financing, enlargement, all the issues we expect to face at Edinburgh. I think we are both committed to making sure that Edinburgh is a success and the Community can show it’s on a forward path. I hope very much we will be able to reach an agreement over the weekend that will enable the Danes to put the whole question back to a new referendum.

    QUESTION:

    Why do you think Edinburgh will be a success, because the EC is in a rather desperate position right now?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The European Community is a fairly remarkable organisation. Over the years it has had many occasions where it faced difficulties. It has hurdled those difficulties. It has faced them and overcome them. I think that when we get to Edinburgh the many difficulties to be overcome, there’s a general will to overcome them.

    QUESTION:

    There’s a general will to overcome them?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There’s a general will.

    QUESTION:

    And you saw that general will as well from Mr Lubbers?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Ask the Prime Minister.

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    Of course we discussed the very useful proposal of the British presidency about the Danish problem and as was said in other capitals, we think it can be improved. Certain elements of it, as I explained to the press in the Netherlands already on Friday. But I see good possibilities. You never know of course. It will be difficult and the same is for the other topics we have to discuss. It won’t be easy. Europe is often at its best when it is difficult.

    QUESTION:

    The Christian Democratic leaders have said last week that they won’t accept the British solution on the Danish issue.

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    Oh, that’s the way we prepare meetings. Always it is the same.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Would you go into a meeting saying I agree with everything if you are just about to go into negotiations? That is the standard way the Community prepares.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, what kind of improvements could you bring to this proposal to solve [inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    What we brought forward for the meeting over the weekend is a compromise between the necessary changes that are there to ensure that Denmark can successfully put the Referendum back and the changes that the rest of the Community are prepared to accept. There are some things that the Community can’t accept. We can’t accept changes to the Maastricht Treaty itself. We can’t accept things that require re-ratification. And there has to be flexibility both on behalf of Denmark and on behalf of the rest of the Community. Now we have put forward a proposal in some small areas where I think there will be further discussion at Edinburgh. I hope it will be possible to reach a conclusion. No-one can be absolutely certain about that. We will have to wait till Edinburgh. But what is perfectly clear, talking to every head of Government across the Community, is that there is a general will to see whether we can reach an agreement. Everybody will be going there trying to reach an agreement and I think that is a very satisfactory way to begin the meeting at Edinburgh.

    QUESTION:

    Will there be a motion to stimulate the European economy?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We will be discussing the European economy of course.

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    Of course we will do that.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think that it is still possible that Denmark will take over the European Presidency in January?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes, its not only possible, it is certain they will.

    QUESTION:

    Still?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes.

    QUESTION:

    Could we have your comments about the rejection by Switzerland of the EEA? Both of you please.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is not a wholly unexpected rejection, given the nature of the Swiss constitution. They needed to win in each and every Canton, so I don’t think it is a great surprise they have said no. I think it is a disappointment for Switzerland and for others. What will now happen, of course, is that the Swiss will have excluded themselves from the largest free trading market in the world, and the free trading market that is getting larger. The other EFTA states will no doubt now hold a conference and decide how to proceed. What I think is absolutely clear is that in no way will this diminish the wish of the other EFTA states to join the Community proper.

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    It is a pity of course, but as the Dutch Prime Minister, I want to pinpoint, make clear that we have a separate agreement with Austria and Switzerland about a very important transit problem, and that was made separately and was accepted by the Swiss population a few months earlier. Frankly speaking, that was the most important part for us and that is not endangered by this Referendum.

    QUESTION:

    But the Edinburgh summit can’t be a failure? You agree with that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Everyone will be working to make sure the Edinburgh summit is a success.

    [Remaining section was in Dutch, and translated to the below]

    QUESTION:

    Have you been given British support for the siting of one the European Institutions in the Netherlands?

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    The British hold the Presidency. They are only looking for consensus and agreement and I do not have the feeling that it has become easier now than it was in Maastricht or in Lisbon. I am talking about the whole question of the siting of institutions.

    QUESTION:

    Your colleague Mr Major has been criticised for being too British in his Presidency. Do you share that criticism?

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    We are now busy preparing for Edinburgh and making the best of it, and in the week to come there should be no criticism – only cooperation.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Lubbers, last Friday you said that you and Mr Major would come with a few suggestions for the Danish problem.

    PRIME MINISTER LUBBERS:

    That is what we have done. That is why he was looking so cheerful.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Press Conference with Sr Felipe Gonzalez – 1 December 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint press conference with the Spanish Prime Minister, Sr Felipe Gonzalez, held in Madrid on Tuesday 1st December 1992.

    SR GONZALEZ:

    We welcome Prime Minister, Mr John Major, as President of the European Community and as you might imagine we have spent the past couple of hours working very hard preparing for the Edinburgh summit. I am sure that you will be very interested in listening to the Prime Minister, I would like to welcome him to Spain very warmly and give him the floor.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Felipe, thank you very much indeed, it is very nice to be back in Spain again and to have had the opportunity of discussing with you this morning the agenda that we have in front of us at Edinburgh and other matters as well.

    Let me say just a brief word or two about Edinburgh. We have in front of us a very important but a very complex European summit, there are perhaps more issues of importance to be decided at Edinburgh than we have had at any summit for a very long time in the Community. They include, of course, a solution to the particular problems faced in Denmark so that the Maastricht treaty can be ratified right the way across Europe, we have the difficult problem to be solved on future financing where there are very sharp differences across the Community and where we are seeking to find a compromise that is fair and acceptable to everyone, we have problems to discuss on the questions of enlargement, subsidiarity. There will be a number of important foreign policy issues – Yugoslavia of course, the former Soviet Union very probably and other issues as well.

    I think this morning in my conversations with the Prime Minister we have managed to identify many areas of difficulty, we have managed to look at the details of many of the things that will come forward in Edinburgh and I think it has been a very useful and a very constructive meeting.

    I am just coming up to half way in my tour of European Heads of Government to discuss Edinburgh and I will have a clearer idea of where agreements can be reached and compromises arranged at the end of this tour. Thus far I can simply say that many of the areas of agreement are becoming clearer, the areas of difficulty are beginning also to become sharper and I think to that extent we have had an extremely useful discussion again this morning and am most grateful to the Prime Minister for his hospitality.

    QUESTION:

    There has been a lot of criticism of the British Presidency, most recently over your compromise on the budget, has Mr Gonzalez been able to say that it will be inevitable to increase that budget, particularly on the cohesion fund, if you are to have an agreement at Edinburgh?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The compromise we put forward, we have been criticised by some on the financial compromise for it being not generous enough and we have been criticised by others for it being too generous. What we have had to do in the proposals we have put forward is try and identify the areas of importance – the cohesion fund, the structural fund, external spending where there is a will in the Community to help in Eastern Europe and elsewhere – and identify the areas of priority and that is what we have sought to do.

    And I think when people actually examine the detailed figures they get a rather different impression from that than they may have received earlier. As for the criticism you referred to, some of that preceded the tabling of the financial compromise and in some instances apologies, very generous apologies, have subsequently been offered and accepted by us.

    QUESTION:

    Could you tell us what your response has been to the request to reduce the cohesion fund included in the Delors II package?

    SR GONZALEZ:

    There has been a proposal by the Presidency which we consider insufficient from the budgetary point of view on the whole. We consider that the proposal made by the Commission is insufficient itself from some points of view, for example the point of view of the own resources, so it is an open discussion, we will see whether we can reach a compromise which is what we want for Edinburgh, but a compromise which will solve the Community’s problems.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    If I may add to what the Prime Minister said, there is of course no cohesion fund at the moment, we agreed in the Maastricht negotiations that there would be a cohesion fund and we have put forward proposals as to how that cohesion fund might build up in resources between now and 1999. And again there are some proposals that are more generous than the compromise, there are others from other member states of the Community that are sharply less generous than the Presidency compromise. So it is to reach agreements upon that that I am having my discussions today with the Prime Minister and with other Heads of Government.

    QUESTION:

    What can we expect from Edinburgh with regard to the stability of the European Monetary System and when will the pound return to the system?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have asked officials in the Community to prepare an examination of the European Monetary System and that work is continuing. It is very complex, it is very detailed and it will go on for some time after the Edinburgh summit so I do not expect conclusions on that matter at Edinburgh and neither do I think sterling will return to the system in the immediate future.

    QUESTION:

    Two questions, the first for Mr Major. What are the economic consequences for the economies of the Twelve and for the markets of a possible failure of the Edinburgh summit; and Mr Gonzalez, with regard to the cohesion fund and structural funds, do you think that considering the small economic growth which Europe will undergo this year, next year and possibly in 1994 you will be willing to accept a small reduction in the Delors package?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I do not anticipate us failing to agree at Edinburgh, I very much hope that we will agree at Edinburgh and I have found no contrary feeling amongst any of the Heads of Government I have met. All of us recognise the importance at Edinburgh of reaching agreement on a whole series of complex matters and I have not a shred of doubt in my mind that every Head of Government will go there determined, if it is at all possible, to reach an agreement. And the reason for that of course was implicit in your question, I think it would be damaging for the Community itself as a whole and for the economies of the Community if we were unable to reach agreement. For that reason I am optimistic that we will be able to do so.

    SR GONZALEZ:

    I certainly will make great efforts to reach an agreement but you have asked me about a specific matter. The Commission’s proposal from the point of view of the expenses seems to me very low and from the point of view of the resources or of the contributions to the resources I think it is clearly insufficient, that is the position after a technical analysis of what would be a fair solution for our country. On that basis we will of course make every effort so that Edinburgh will be a summit which will provide results, we obviously need good results, we need to clear certain political uncertainties in the Community because those uncertainties are affecting our economic situation and the Prime Minister was telling me that this will also be a subject of discussion at the Edinburgh summit.

    QUESTION:

    I would like you to explain the situation of the two Spanish entrepreneurs who were given a pardon yesterday in Guinea?

    SR GONZALEZ:

    All I can say is that I feel it is a reasonable response, I do not think they are legally responsible for the crimes with which they have been charged. I think we must be very careful in dealing with investment efforts in a country of this nature, I do not think they have committed any errors, let alone any crimes, and so I am satisfied that they have been pardoned.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Mr Constantine Mitsotakis – 27 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Constantine Mitsotakis, held in Athens on Friday 27th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER MITSOTAKIS:

    We had a very useful review of all issues and a discussion with Prime Minister Major, who was presiding over the Council of Heads of State and Government.

    We discussed all the issues that are on the agenda of the Edinburgh summit; we talked about Denmark, enlargement; we talked about the Cohesion Fund, the Structural Funds, subsidiarity; we talked about all the issues that are of interest to the Community. We talked also about former Yugoslavia and about the very interesting question for my country, Greece, that of the Republic of Skopje, and I must say that I am very satisfied with the discussion because our views are converging and we had the opportunity to go ahead with an in-depth analysis on all these issues.

    We will continue our talks tomorrow morning and I would like to grasp this opportunity in order to thank John Major for his visit which has proved extremely useful.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I just add a very brief word or two to that.

    It is a very great pleasure to have the opportunity of having these discussions again with the Prime Minister. We have enjoyed our previous discussions, tonight has been very worthwhile, very fruitful and has been of considerable assistance in moving towards a satisfactory Community agreement at the meeting in Edinburgh in a few days time.

    We have, as the Prime Minister said, been able to discuss the whole range of issues, many of them in some considerable detail, as we look forward to the discussions that we have in Edinburgh.

    We have a very crowded agenda there but I think there are many areas where there is a very strong convergence of view between the United Kingdom and Greece and I look forward to nailing down those agreements at Edinburgh in a few days time.

    The Prime Minister has made clear that we will be resuming our discussions in the morning; we have enjoyed them to such an extent that we thought an 8.15 further discussion would be a very good idea tomorrow morning and I look forward to that. I think, if the Prime Minister is content, we will be happy to take a couple of questions.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    I would like to put a question to you, Prime Minister, concerning the Edinburgh summit. Does the agenda of that summit include any discussion of the Republic of Skopje issue? I would also like to ask you whether you discussed an eventual trip of our Prime Minister to Serbia.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    On the first point, we are considering precisely what the agenda at Edinburgh should be at the present. I think it very likely that the subject of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be raised. It is not certain yet but it is a matter we discussed at Lisbon; it is a matter of concern we know in Greece and elsewhere and across the Community and it is very likely that we shall wish to take the views of the Prime Minister and others on this important subject.

    On the second half of the question, in terms of a visit by the Prime Minister to Serbia, that is one of the matters that I shall wish to discuss with my European colleagues and discuss again with the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, until now the European Community has stood by Greece in its dispute with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the name issue. I would like to ask you in your capacity as President of the European Council today, do you think that at the Edinburgh summit the European Community will continue to support Greece over that issue?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We share with the Prime Minister a wish to see a solution to this problem. I know that is the view of Prime Minister Mitsotakis – it is the view of the rest of the European Community – and we will be discussing ways to reach a satisfactory conclusion that is satisfactory right the way across the Community and right the way beyond it. Those are the matters that we will be discussing and I think that will be the same in the future as in the past.

    QUESTION:

    Influential figures like Robin O’Neal and also Lord Owen favour recognition of Macedonia at Edinburgh in order to preserve the stability of the region. Which would you think is the lesser of two evils, the instability in Macedonia or the instability of the Mitsotakis government?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is quite like being back in London! I am not going to get drawn down the question of internal politics in Greece. That would not be pertinent, it would not be prudent and it would not be polite. Let me just simply say that I have a great admiration for my friend the Prime Minister.

    On the first part of your question, I simply repeat what I said a moment ago: we have a shared interest in reaching a satisfactory conclusion to this problem and that interest is shared with all our Community partners.

    QUESTION:

    I would like to ask you, Sir, if you discussed tonight with the Greek Prime Minister the idea of a double name of Skopje – an internal name and an external, international one – and what you think about that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We discussed all these issues and we are still discussing them.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Mr Giuliano Amato – 27 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Giuliano Amato, held in Rome on Friday 27th November 1992.

    QUESTION:

    Can we ask you what sort of things you discussed in your meeting today?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have had a discussion on the whole agenda for Maastricht, the difficulties with ratification in Denmark, how we might meet some of those difficulties, we discussed future financing, indeed the whole range of issues that will be discussed at Edinburgh in a few weeks time.

    QUESTION:

    And on European economic recovery did you discuss the concerns there obviously are now about Europe’s economic position?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes we did. Clearly the growth pattern across the whole of Europe is far less attractive than it has been in recent years, we have been used to growth across Europe of something in excess of 2 percent, next year the projections across Europe as a whole are a good deal lower, so yes we certainly did discuss that.

    QUESTION:

    Are you any more confident about the Edinburgh summit?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am in the midst of talking to all our colleagues, there are a whole series of complex matters, many of them interlocked, and at the moment I am in the midst of a series of discussions to find out precisely what are the priorities of all our European partners. I think it is in the nature of things that as we begin to conclude these discussions, the outcome at Edinburgh will become clearer.

    QUESTION:

    But you are not getting much support, did you get the support you are looking for today?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    You make an assertion like that, I suggest you wait until Edinburgh and see what the outcome is.

    QUESTION:

    Are we getting support for European economic recovery?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There were some rather strange stories about European economic recovery over the weekend, I do not know where they came from, they certainly did not emanate from us. But I think what we are keen to do is to make sure that within the resources available to Europe that they are directed to the right sort of expenditure, clearly we would like to see infrastructure expenditure both with growth potential in the short and medium term and as a result of that for its employment creation potential.

    QUESTION:

    What was your reaction to that particular proposal?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have not yet had the opportunity of discussing it with all our partners, those I have discussed it with share my view that that sort of growth is the right sort of growth for Europe.

    QUESTION:

    What is your opinion about the Italian position on GATT?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you had better ask the Prime Minister about the Italian position on GATT. I think all of us in the Community understand the overriding importance of stimulating world trade. All around the industrial world and the non-industrial world we wish to see an increase in trade and an increase in growth. One of the important components of reaching that is to have a satisfactory agreement on the Uruguay Round.

    QUESTION:

    Does Mr Amato support your budget?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you had better ask the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Amato, what is your view of the EC budget?

    MR AMATO:

    We discussed the issue but this is really something for which the Presidency is looking for a good compromise that in Edinburgh can be reached.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There is a wide range of views on the budget, we are seeking to bring all those views together and to reach a compromise. Some would wish to increase expenditure by rather more than others but we will reach a satisfactory compromise I hope at Edinburgh.

    QUESTION:

    Do you feel that you are going to get the kind of compromise that you would want?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We must wait and see, certainly there are I think views on both sides of the compromise we have produced, we must wait and see at Edinburgh.

    QUESTION:

    [Not interpreted].

    MR AMATO:

    [Inaudible].

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, what is your view of Her Majesty the Queen’s decision to pay tax?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    That is a domestic matter in the United Kingdom, that was a decision that The Queen took, she asked me to consider it in the summer, we considered it, I made a broad announcement, we will make a detailed announcement sometime early in the New Year.