asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will raise in the Council of Foreign Ministers in the near future the possibility of moves towards the common representation of the member countries abroad, in the form of joint consulates.

No. At this stage of the Community's development it would be premature to consider joint consular representation. We are, however, always prepared to consider a practical co-operation in sharing services and premises at diplomatic and consular posts, and we initiated a preliminary discussion of this among the nine member States during the United Kingdom presidency in 1977.