Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Warsi on 21 July (WA 156), how many times since 2008 the Council of the European Union has disagreed with items on its agenda previously agreed within Coreper and to be decided without discussion as A-items.

The Government does not record information on how many times the Council has chosen not to adopt an item as an “A” point following a preparatory meeting of The Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER). Where an item is on the agenda for a meeting of the Council of the European Union, COREPER will prepare that item but will not itself take any decision: the decision is for the Council to take. If a matter is planned for agreement as an A point at a Council meeting and it appears that agreement is not possible, it would be either withdrawn from the agenda or made the subject of discussion at that meeting.