asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by what procedure and on what date the internal agreement on the financing of community aid by the Lomé Agreement, Command Paper No. 5179 as amended, was ratified by the House of Commons; and if he will set out the totals and national contributions to that fund before and after the amendments laid down in Article 1 of Command Paper No. 6907.

I have been asked to reply.The text of the Internal Agreement on the Financing and Administration of Community Aid done at Brussels on 11th July 1975 was published, together with the text of the ACP/EEC Convention of Lomé in Cmnd. 6220 laid before Parliament on 14th September 1975. The Internal Agreement was the subject of the European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (No. 2) Order 1975 approved by the House on 7th November 1975. The Government notified the Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities of their approval of the agreement on 30th December 1975. The agreement entered into force on 1st April 1976.The proposal to amend the agreement was considered by the Select Committee on European Legislation on 24th March 1977. The Committee reported that in its opinion the proposal did not raise questions of legal or political importance. The amendment to the agreement was the subject of the European Communities Definition of Treaties (No. 5) Order which was approved on 30th November 1977.The totals and national contributions to the European Development Fund before and after the amendments are as follows: