In a note dated 1 April 1981, the Secretary-General of Western European Union (WEU) circulates the reply from the WEU Council to Assembly Recommendation 362 on international industrial consortia and collaborative arrangements for the production of high technology military equipment. The reply is largely based on the French proposal (WPM(81)11). The changes are mostly in paragraph 5: the Council does not retain France’s text, which emphasised the role of consortia and suggested that they should become the general rule for ‘requests for proposals’ issued by military staffs. The final reply confirms that each state is free to decide how such requests are passed on to industry.