BAE Systems and EADS

Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Dykes

Wednesday 10th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

I am not going to respond to the media interpretation of this breakdown. For those who wish to look at the official announcement, it related to the legal structure between the two entities, whether they would operate in the countries and how they would share the workload. Those were fundamental reasons for the breakdown. Of course the German Government will have views on this merger, as do indeed our Government and the French. It would be, as my noble friend Lord Tebbit said, totally appropriate that we should. It is important in all our national interests.

[Lord Dykes]

Will my noble friend advise the House, because although shareholder, investor and stock exchange issues were obviously primordial in this matter, and the apparent breakdown happened for those reasons, there must also have been some discord between the three Governments he referred to—ourselves, France and Germany? Will he take steps to rectify that in future to make sure that we have a more common position on defence requirements in Europe?

[Lord Marland]

The noble Lord should not suggest that there was discord between the three nations. There was discord at a company level, where it was decided that a number of the dynamics would not operate together. There is no discord between France, Germany and the UK in this matter. In fact, we have very positive relationships.

Energy: Carbon Capture and Storage

Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Dykes

Wednesday 28th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

I agree entirely with the noble Lord, Lord Woolmer. It is fundamental that we develop these technologies and push ahead with them. We are working closely with the Chinese in the China-UK CCS project for near-zero emissions from coal. There is no doubt that, in considering the view of the Committee on Climate Change that one test case should be made for gas, we must not ignore the priority of making coal cleaner.

[Lord Dykes]

My Lords, in his Statement yesterday, the Minister referred rightly to the race in Europe for low-carbon initiatives. Does that include CCS? Will he have further discussions with the Commission and the Council of Energy Ministers to pursue that on a European-wide basis as well?

[Lord Marland]

It is up to our Government to show true leadership in this area. We are the second country in the world when it comes to CCS development. We must put as much pressure as we can on the European Union to follow our example and to develop this technology as quickly as possible.