To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the recent meeting of the European Community's Budget Council.

The Budget Council met in Brussels on 12 November. I represented the United Kingdom. The Council established a second reading draft Budget for 1992 totalling 65,634 million ecu—£45,738 million—in commitment appropriations, compared with the total after the first reading of 65,606 million ecu—£45,718 million.

	Financial Perspective		Draft Budget1
	mecu	£ million2	mecu	£ million
Commitment appropriations
1. Agricultural guarantee	35,039	24,417	35,008	24,396
2. Structural operations	18,009	12,550	18,009	12,500
3. Multi-annual programmes	3,115	2,171	2,687	1,872
4. Other policies	5,224	3,640	5,135	3,578
5. Reimbursements and administration	4,205	2,930	3,795	2,645
6. Monetary reserve	1,000	697	1,000	697
Total: Commitment appropriations of which:	66,592	46,406	65,634	45,738
compulsory	38,729	26,989	38,548	26,862
non-compulsory	27,863	19,417	27,086	18,875
Total: Payment appropriations3 of which:	63,241	44,070	62,417	43,496
compulsory	38,669	29,947	38,475	26,812
non-compulsory	24,572	17,123	23,942	16,684
1 Council's second reading draft budget established on 12 November.
2 The ERM central rate of £1 = 1·435 ecu is used throughout this reply.
3 There is only a global ceiling for payments.

The European Parliament will consider the draft budget at its plenary in December. The 1992 draft budget is expected to be adopted by the Parliament on 12 December.