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MEMBERSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY: A STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT MADE BY THE PRIME MINISTER TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON TUESDAY, 18th MARCH, 1975.

Tuesday, March 18, 1975

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER

Mr. Speaker, with permission, I should like to make a statement on the European Community.

I regret that this will inevitably be somewhat lengthy, but this is one of the most important parliamentary occasions in our history, and I feel a duty to state the Government's position here in the House, rather than make a short, even perfunctory, statement here and a lengthy statement outside the House where it is not subject to parliamentary questioning.

Her Majesty's Government have decided to recommend to the British people to vote for staying in the Community.

Last Wednesday, after Dublin, I told Parliament that the renegotiations, begun last April, had now gone as far as they could usefully go and that, while some of our objectives-if Britain remained in the Community- could be pursued in the continuing meetings of the Council of Ministers, we had now reached the point where Government, Parliament, and then the country, must take the decision.

The House will be familiar with the renegotiation objectives we set out in the manifesto for the February 1974 General Election, and confirmed in October.

While the judgment of hon. Members, and of the electorate, may, in taking their decision, go far wider than the terms achieved in the nego- tiations, I feel it is right to give the House my assessment of what has been achieved.

OBJECTIVE ONE

The manifesto called for:

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Major changes in the common agricultural policy so that it ceases to be a threat to world trade in food products, and so that low cost producers outside Europe can continue to have access to the British food market."

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture gave precision to these objectives in his statement to the Council of Ministers on 18th June, on which he reported to the House on 19th June. He asked for:

1. The establishment of firm criteria or pricing policy, taking account of the needs of efficient producers and the demand/supply situation.

2. Greater flexibility, taking account of the need for appropriate mea-

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