To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his answers of 17 July 1997, Official Report, column 252 and 6 June 1997, Official Report, column 283, when he will reach a conclusion as to which documents of The Schengen Acquis will be placed in the Library; and when the Schengen Secretariat will complete its review of the classification of these documents. [16968]
The main Schengen Treaties are already in the Libraries of the House. Work under way within Schengen on the definition of the rest of the acquis is expected to be completed very soon.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the Spanish amendment on voting arrangements on asylum and border controls put forward at the Amsterdam summit. [16913]
The Spanish amendment on voting arrangements submitted at the Amsterdam summit is contained in Article 4 of the Schengen Protocols and states that the unanimous agreement of the Schengen States would be necessary for the UK or Ireland to participate in aspects of the Schengen Acquis.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the proposed Schengen-related agreement between the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland and Norway. [17080]
In accordance with Declaration 47, adopted by the Inter-governmental Conference at Amsterdam, the Council is currently considering how to give effect to the requirement in Article 6 of the Schengen Protocol that an agreement should be concluded with Norway and Iceland for the establishment of rights and obligations between Ireland and the UK on the one hand and Iceland and Norway on the other in the domains of the Schengen acquis which apply to these States. No decisions have yet been taken on whether any part of the Schengen acquis should apply to the UK in accordance with the Protocol.