Examination of Witnesses (Questions 60-79)
KITTY USSHER,
MR JEAN-CHRISTOPHE
GRAY, MR
DUNCAN SPARKES
AND MR
NICHOLAS JOICEY
5 JULY 2007
Q60 Lord Watson of Richmond: Does it
matter that we are willing to stand further back in the queue
or not?
Kitty Ussher: We do not think in terms of the
outcome that that created a problem at all for us, no. In relation
to the 2005 agreement, there is an enormous amount of detail chucked
into the melting pot when we are doing the negotiations, and I
think that the press story was rather misleading in that sense
because there was an enormous amount going on and we wanted a
fair outcome, and we are absolutely happy that we got one. The
outcome will be, as we told Parliament, that the Prime Minister
as was made a statement following the European Summit in December
2005 about how it would be financed, and that is how it is being
financed.
Q61 Lord Watson of Richmond: We are still
in the queue for our second bowl of porridge?
Kitty Ussher: We think it is a fair outcome.
Q62 Chairman: Minister, it remains for
me to thank you very much for coming and for giving us a generous
amount of time, during which we have just about been able to ask
all our questions. I particularly thank you for coming three days
into the job, which is quite demanding, and we look forward to
seeing you again. We are grateful for your assurances that should
things turn out very different we will be consulted again and
we will, of course, be writing to you.
Kitty Ussher: It has been a huge pleasure to
be here and I just wanted to say that you have fulfilled your
role in the constitution to a stupendous extent because what it
has meant is that I am more prepared than I could otherwise ever
have been for ECOFIN by the end of next week, thereby doing my
job as well as I possibly can, so thank you very much for making
me prepare well and I hope I will do you justice.
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