EUROPEAN COMMISSION: UK REFUSES NEW NETWORK OF EU INFO OFFICES.

Mrs Wallstrom announced that, from May 1, a new network of information points, called "Europe Direct relays", had been opened replacing the previous Info-Points and Carrefours which had supplied the public with facts about the EU. There are around 400 centres including, for the first time, centres in the new member states. The number of centres in the EU15 countries will increase by 50 while the budget for the centres will increase from euro five million to ten million.

The units, which will be based in local authorities' offices or chambers of commerce, will provide a range of services providing information on all EU institutions including publications on EU law, policies and programmes, Treaty texts (for example copies of the constitution), a feedback system to pass questions directly to the Commission and a freephone to the Europe Direct inquiries centre.

The...