Downing Street Says » 2005 » October

» Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Smoking

Asked if the bill on smoking would definitely be published tomorrow, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said he had no information to suggest otherwise. Asked why the Government couldn't just stick to the policy they had announced during the election, the PMOS said that there had been a consultation exercise which we had a to take into account of when we made an announcement. Asked if the bill might be published without detailed issues being resolved within the Cabinet, the PMOS said that he didn't want to get into talking about announcements before they have been made, but we should be clear that smoking was a genuinely difficult issue which people came at from different perspectives. There were practical issues which had to be resolved. Would ongoing work be necessary to finally resolve and pin down practical issues? He suspected the answer to that was yes. But would there be a clear direction in which we were going? The answer to that was also yes.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Smoking

Asked what the current position was on the Smoking Bill, and if it would be published tomorrow, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said the position was the same as it was this morning and yesterday afternoon, and there was no reason to believe that the original timetable had changed.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

George Galloway

Asked if the row between George Galloway and the Senate committee might damage the special relationship, the PMOS said that there were some issues which one learned to stay out of. This was top of that list.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Avian Flu

Asked if we were expecting a ban by the end of the day, and also how did the Government justify its U-turn regarding the import and export of birds, the PMOS replied that in terms of the ban, it was a decision for the EU. Regarding the second part of the question, situations were responded to as they arose. As he said this morning, the important thing to recognise was that the procedure worked. The bird was found and procedures came into effect. Clearly, however, when circumstances change, we review the situation.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Bird Flu

Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that DEFRA could handle the issue of Avian flu, the PMOS said that the important thing to recognise was that the quarantine procedures had actually worked. They did identify the bird and allow the appropriate action to be taken. Of course, as with anything, you looked back at the procedures and adapted accordingly, but the bottom line was that the current procedures had done their job.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Informal EU Summit

Asked for further information about the Informal Summit arrangements, the PMOS said the Prime Minister would sum up where he believed the consensus was at the end of the meeting. As he said the morning, the proof of the pudding would be in the eating, in the sense that this was the start of two months' of really hard work to try and make the vision into a reality. The reality was a future financing deal, and also to clear the remaining dossiers. The test of whether Hampton Court worked in the medium to long terms would be the positions taken in the next two months.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Europe – Joint Briefing between London and Brussels

European Parliament and the Informal meeting at Hampton Court

The PMOS set out how the Prime Minister viewed his visit to the European Parliament tomorrow. It was important to set this in the context of our presidency as a whole. In June the Prime Minister had set out his positive vision of why and how he believed Europe had to be meet the challenge of globalisation. Modernizing the European social model. Tomorrow was in many ways a report back on what he had been doing since June, mapping out how we saw the next two months, which would be a hard two months and why we needed to move to the next stage in that two months.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Future Financing

Asked why there wouldn't be detailed discussions of the European budget at the informal meeting, the PMOS said that we had been very clear, as had the Commission, that we did not see the informal meeting as being about future financing. In terms of the position of new member states, we were fully aware and had been, as acknowledged in June, of their desire to try and get a settlement in December. What we had to do here was get the horse and cart in the right order. We had to agree the strategic vision and direction for Europe before we resolved how that was reflected in the budget. That was the proper way forward. That did not mean that we would try to sideline the issue of future financing in any way. It did however mean that we decided the parameters in which we approached that negotiation. Future financing would undoubtedly form a large part of the very hard work over the next two months.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Global Trade

Asked if the Prime Minister tomorrow would be setting out a strategic vision for global trade talks and try to break the deadlock in the Doha round on agriculture, the PMOS said that he thought that would be taking ambition a bit too far. The Prime Minister had stressed the importance of the Doha round time and again and the need to make progress. The details of negotiation were a matter for the Commission and that work was being carried on by the trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. In terms of the detailed negotiation, that was for the European Commission. Obviously though the Prime Minister was keeping a very close eye on developments within the WTO round and the need to keep moving forward. We were entering in to a very significant period of the WTO round and we would do everything we could to make sure that worked, because it was essential it did work as the Prime Minister had said on many occasions.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

EU Constitution and the Abatement

Asked about what progress the Prime Minister hoped to make on the EU constitution and the UK's abatement, the PMOS said that he doubted that the constitution would be discussed this week and our position on that is as it was. On the abatement, the Prime Minister had said in June, that the abatement was on the table but in the context of overall reform of the budget. That hadn't changed. These were not issues for the informal summit.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Smoking

Smoking

George Galloway

Avian Flu

Bird Flu

Informal EU Summit

Europe – Joint Briefing between London and Brussels

European Parliament and the Informal meeting at Hampton Court

Future Financing

Global Trade

EU Constitution and the Abatement

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