Interviewer
Mrs Thatcher, do you feel that this has been a rather disappointing Summit, highlighting perhaps the friction, the tension, between the interests of individual countries as sovereign states and the desire to pull together as a Community?
Prime Minister
No, I think that element arose in connection with fish and certainly the fisheries problem did take up quite a large part of the Summit meeting. But we did agree in the end that we couldn't discuss these detailed matters and I certainly would never have agreed to the Canadian and the Danish request that agreements between Canada and the Community which Germany wanted and the Faroes and the Community which Denmark wanted, should go ahead unless Britain got very considerable advantages from such a scheme, or at least was not disadvantaged from it. They were not able to give us what we wanted, the assurances we needed in that connection. So we said straightaway that in that case we must go back to the drawing board and take up the discussions on the Common Fisheries Policy. Our fishermen in Britain must have some say in the conference of their long term future. So we took the initiative in advancing the Fishery Ministers meeting. They know the details. I hope they will take up where they left off in December.
Interviewer
Is the main bone of contention access to British waters, when it all boils down?
PM
No. We have agreed the quotas. We agreed that in December. The question is now how to arrange the fisheries so that everyone can fish up to their quota.
Interviewer
Do you think that this new conference this Council brought forward for the Fisheries Ministers this Friday is likely to be more successful than it was in December?
PM
But it very nearly reached a successful conclusion in December. It was within an ace of success.
Interviewer
But what has changed? [end p1]
PM
The willingness of everyone to reach an agreement, everyone to reach an agreement, and all Heads of Government are saying that it must be reached urgently and without delay. We were so near and we didn't understand why those negotiations were suddenly terminated.
Interviewer
You talked a good deal I think about unemployment. Did you come to any new conclusions?
PM
If there were magic wands, a magic formula, we would have come to them a long time ago. The fact is that not only have we a world recession because of very rapid rises in oil prices. For example, when this Government&em;my Government&em;came to power world price of oil was about $11 a barrel. Now it is $26 a barrel. That is one of the problems that has put the world into recession and it has put unemployment up right across Europe. The other is that we are getting changes, structural changes, in the pattern of trade. Other countries are producing steel so ours is not in such great demand. Other countries are producing shipbuilding. Other countries are going ahead faster than we are with technological inventions. So we are losing out on some of our older industries and we are not getting fast enough into the new ones. The way to get faster into them is to put less into consumption and more into investment. We know that, but having said that, it will not necessarily be easy to fashion policies to deal with that. We will have jointly together to see how we can relieve unemployment particularly among the young with the help of the economic and social funds of the Community. And we have very big programmes at home. But also try to get into investment in the newer productive industries.
Interviewer
One of the problems which has been a running sore now for nearly a year is the question of Poland and its crisis. Poland has made requests to the Community for aid. Did you come to any conclusions about that? [end p2]
PM
We are very anxious to do everything we can to help Poland. It is absolutely vital that she be left to sort out her own internal problems in her own way. As you know, a number of countries have met regularly to help, sometimes with food, sometimes with refinancing or rescheduling of debts and Britain has been among those countries. We agreed that if we could help more with food supplies we would try to do so and that that should be considered urgently. Of course there are still more arrangements to come to about refinancing because Poland has such very big debts. We tend to make these arrangements at six months at a time. We shall continue to be as helpful as we possibly can. No specific figures were mentioned.
Interviewer
This figure that is being banded about&em;$70 million&em;that was not in fact discussed?
PM
It was not discussed.
Interviewer
One question as to the institutions of the Community. I understand that you discussed the question of the site of the European Parliament which is in recent trouble with its staff this week. Is there any truth in the suggestion that there has been a change in favour of the French notion of the Parliament being permanently established in Strasbourg? Mr. Giscard d'Estaing did raise the matter I understand.
PM
The matter was raised. What Heads of Government have done is to reaffirm the status quo unanimously and positively so in fact there is no change. It was a positive decision.
Interviewer
Was there any positive feeling among the Heads of State and Government that in fact the time might come when a positive decision might have to be taken to change and settle on one site for the European Parliament.?
PM
Well, the fact is no different decision could be reached other than the one which we reached and we reached it unanimously. We put that on record.