TNAG-1984-FCO40-2817-Presentation-of-UK-policy-on-Hong-Kong-to-the-media-1989 — Page 86

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE '80s: LEADING THE WAY TO A

COMMON SENSE '90s

Redraft of paragraphs 10-15

10.

-

through lower prices

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and

These principles have found further expression in the budgetary field, where sensible measures supported by both Britain and France have helped to transform the way the finances of the Community are run. Pressure for stricter

budget discipline and reform of the Common Agricultural

Policy has produced concrete, common-sense results

benefitting both consumers farmers through greater certainty about future market

conditions. The package of measures adopted in the dairy

sector during the British Presidency in 1986 introduced

order to the market, stabilised production, and cut

surpluses. More significant still, the February 1988 Brussels Summit agreed a series of legally-binding stabilisers for individual crops, and a binding financial guideline to control overall agricultural spending.

11. We should not be complacent. There remains a lot to be

done, particularly in agriculture, where both Britain and France recognise the need to maintain the steady pressure

for common sense reform. But these are real achievements,

which have given the Community the firm financial footing it

requires to face up to the policy challenges of the 1990s.

12. Talk of Europe, and the 1990s, inevitably and rightly reminds us of the primary challenge facing the Community today: 1992 and completion of the Single Market programme. The UK has consistently argued for the creation of a Single Market. France, Britain and our other partners firmly agree that the process is irreversible. I am delighted that the Single Market is now top of the Community's agenda. It

NS1AAG/1 TC