To ask the Minister for the Arts if he will be attending any future meetings of the intergovernmental conference on political union of the European Community to discuss the competence of the Community in cultural matters.

I have no plans at present to do so. The discussions of the intergovernmental conference on political union cover a wide range of issues, on which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is in the lead. The view of Her Majesty's Government is that the treaty of Rome does not confer competence on the Community in the cultural area.