General Affairs Council

Wednesday 26th October 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)]

I attended an extraordinary meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC) on 22 October in Brussels.

The GAC was chaired by the Polish EU presidency (Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, State Secretary for European Affairs). A draft record of the meeting can be found at:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/genaff/125491.pdf

Ministers reviewed preparations for the October European Council, the outcome of which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister reported to Parliament on 24 October.

Additionally, Ministers agreed new general arrangements for the delivery of EU statements in multilateral organisations. The document setting out these arrangements can be found at:

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st15/st15901.en11.pdf

I have written to the chairs of the Scrutiny and Select Committees to provide further detail on this agreement. I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses copies of the general arrangements and the text of a UK statement for the minute.

I will also continue to update Parliament on General Affairs Councils.