This extract from the minutes of the ministerial meeting of the Council of Western European Union (WEU) held in Brussels on 17 November 1960 sets out various questions concerning the debate on relations between the Council and the Assembly in the area of defence. The members of the Council share the view that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) should not be asked to change its security regulations to provide classified information to the Defence Committee. They approve the idea of developing close unofficial contacts between the Secretariats of WEU and NATO and emphasise the need to make better use of national information sources. French representative Jean Chauvel affirms that the replies given by the WEU Council should always have a collegiate character as difficulties would arise if each minister were to present a national viewpoint. It is also important to improve the drafting of the Assembly’s questions and Recommendations and to communicate them sufficiently in advance for the Council to be able to provide adequate replies. British minister Edward Heath points out an anomaly, namely that the NATO Parliamentarians’ Conference has sometimes received information which has been refused to members of the WEU Assembly. The Assembly’s proposals concerning the representation of the Council at joint meetings are therefore not accepted.