asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, since neither the World Bank's staff appraisal report nor the English version of the environmental impact assessment on the proposed China Western Poverty Reduction Project has yet been published, they will instruct the United Kingdom Director of the World Bank to seek deferment of the decision on the project to allow non-governmental organisations a reasonable time in which to study these reports and make representations to the World Bank. [HL2771]
The World Bank's staff appraisal report on this project was made available at the end of last week and has just been received in London. It is now being studied. Discussions are continuing in Washington about the timing of consideration by the bank's board.
| Table 1: ILO Unemployment Rates for selected EU countries, 1990–98—Spring of each year, not seasonally adjusted | |||||||||||||
| Per cent | |||||||||||||
| EU 12 | Belgium | Denmark | Germany | Greece | Spain | France | Ireland | Italy | Luxembourg | Netherlands | Portugal | UK | |
| 1990 | 8.4 | 7.3 | 8.3 | 4.9 | 7.0 | 16.3 | 9.4 | 14.1 | 9.8 | 1.6 | 7.7 | 4.6 | 6.8 |
| 1991 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 9.1 | 5.3 | 7.7 | 15.9 | 9.2 | 15.8 | 10.1 | 1.5 | 7.3 | 3.9 | 8.4 |
| 1992 | 9.2 | 6.7 | 9.0 | 6.3 | 7.8 | 17.7 | 10.2 | 15.0 | 9.4 | 2.0 | 5.6 | 4.0 | 9.7 |
| 1993 | 10.6 | 8.1 | 10.7 | 7.7 | 8.6 | 22.2 | 11.4 | 15.6 | 10.3 | 2.3 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 10.3 |
| 1994 | 11.4 | 9.6 | 8.0 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 24.3 | 12.7 | 14.6 | 11.3 | 3.5 | 7.2 | 6.7 | 9.6 |
| 1995 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 7.0 | 8.2 | 9.1 | 22.7 | 11.9 | 12.0 | 11.8 | 2.9 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 8.6 |
| 1996 | 11.0 | 9.5 | 6.8 | 8.8 | 9.7 | 22.2 | 12.4 | 11.7 | 12.2 | 3.3 | 6.4 | 7.3 | 8.2 |
| 1997 | 10.9 | 9.0 | 5.4 | 9.9 | 9.6 | 20.9 | 12.6 | 10.2 | 12.4 | 2.5 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.1 |
| 1998 | — | 9.3 | 5.1 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 18.9 | 12.1 | — | 12.4 | 2.8 | 4.4 | 4.7 | 6.1 |
Source:
Labour Force Survey, ONS and Eurostat.