Downing Street Says » 2005

» Tuesday, June 21, 2005

EU Rebate

Asked whether the Prime Minister's remarks regarding the rebate meant the rebate "could go altogether", the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said what they meant was they were on the table for discussion if there was a commitment and a process to guarantee reform. So long as the budget remained distorted in the way it was, then we needed the rebate. It was the nature of the budget which made the rebate necessary, both now and in the past, and therefore it was in that sense, not a tablet of stone, but rather a consequence of the problem that was created by the distorted nature of the budget.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Railway Charging

Asked what timescale the Government had to respond on the proposals for train "congestion charging", the PMOS replied the proposal was ATOC's vision for the next ten years. The PMOS said the ATOC proposal reported that passenger numbers were set to grow by one quarter over the next ten years, and it suggested congestion charging was set to manage travel during the rush hour.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Pensions

Asked if the Prime Minister had settled on a final salary scheme for pensions, the PMOS said it was better to wait for Adair Turner's report.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Pope’s invitation to G8

Asked if the Prime Minister had invited the Pope to the G8, the PMOS replied he had not.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

EU Budget

Asked about what the Prime Minister meant in his press conference this morning when he said that the rebate was an anomaly, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that, as the Prime Minister had made very clear at the European Council last week, the rebate was the symptom of a problem, it was not the problem itself. The rebate was only necessary because of the distorted nature of the budget. The only way in which we could make a fair contribution under the current system was by having a rebate. Countries such as France got so much more back from Europe in comparison to ourselves, due to the CAP. The fundamental way to address the problem was to address the imbalance in the budget. If you did that then the rebate wouldn't be necessary. That was why both our Prime Minister and Prime Minister Persson, who he met today saw the fundamental need to address the imbalance in the budget. Asked about the Prime Minister's phrase, 'the rebate has to go', the PMOS said he wasn't sure the Prime Minister used that phrase but what he said in the Press Conference quite explicitly was that the rebate was on the table if fundamental reform of the EU budget was also on the table and we had a guaranteed process of bringing that about.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Rover

Asked about the Prime Ministers meeting this morning with the MG-Rover task force, the PMOS said that task force updated the Prime Minister that since Rover closed on April 15th nearly 1250 MG-Rover former workers had found new jobs. Another 1092 have started training and 3000 at risk jobs in companies supplying Rover have been temporarily safe-guarded.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

» Monday, June 20, 2005

EU Finance

Asked when the review the Prime Minister had mentioned in the House would have reported, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied it would end in 2008. The PMOS explained that whenever the Luxembourg Presidency put its original proposal to us in draft, they proposed a due process reporting around 2008. We were concerned this proposal about its wording could have been interpreted as both promising a change to the CAP but also the reverse. As the PMOS briefed at the time, we were unhappy with that, and as the PMOS briefed later on, the final proposal put to us by the Presidency had dropped the reference to 2008 and the language had gone backwards, not forwards. Given what others had said during the day about the impossibility as they saw it about a change in the CAP before 2014, that was certainly unacceptable to us.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments Off on EU Finance

European Council Meeting

Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to meet either Chancellor Schroeder or President Chirac prior to the G8 meeting, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that he was not aware of any plans at this stage. However we were of course in close contact with their representatives through the Sherpa system.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

G8

Put to him that we were losing our way on our G8 agenda, the PMOS said that the time to judge the G8 would be after Gleneagles. To make a general point, the issues of Africa and Climate Change overlapped. If you developed the new technology to deal with climate change, that would help deal with the issue both in developed and emerging countries but also in Africa. Therefore there was a confluence of interest in dealing with the issue.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Friday, June 17, 2005

Foreign Doctors

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the numbers of doctors and nurses coming to the UK from developing countries and the employment of European doctors to cover weekend work, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that in terms of doctors coming over for the weekend, those arrangements were in place following new contracts that had been agreed with GPs. Many GPs were carrying out the out-of-hours service themselves, but it was true that there were some doctors being hired from Europe to help out. The most important thing was that we had strong arrangements for out-of-hours care for patients and that was what we were providing. Asked if this was a long-term solution, the PMS said that the Department of Health were supporting the out-of-hours service through the Primary Care Trusts. £316 million had been available last year for out-of-hours services and most important factor was that these services were provided to those who needed them and that a high quality of service was maintained.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Tuesday, June 21, 2005

EU Rebate

Railway Charging

Pensions

Pope’s invitation to G8

EU Budget

Rover

» Monday, June 20, 2005

EU Finance

European Council Meeting

G8

» Friday, June 17, 2005

Foreign Doctors

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