To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he has had discussions with the Romanian Prime Minister on Romania's possible membership of the International Whaling Commission; and if he will make a statement. (175297)

There have been no recent discussions with the Romanian Prime Minster on this issue. British embassies abroad will shortly deliver an updated version of the UK publication ‘Protecting Whales—A Global Responsibility’, endorsed by the Prime Minister and Sir David Attenborough, to all EU countries, which are not current members of the International Whaling Commission. This is to encourage them to join the effort to protect all cetacean species.

UK embassies and Ministers across Government will continue to lobby nations on this issue in the run-up to the next annual meeting of the IWC in Chile in June 2008.