It has been very successful indeed. The SDA has acted in mixture of ways to assist the private sector and to carry out some public sector investments. The new organisation is such a body, even though it is sailing under the banking flag.

There are some valuable lessons to be learnt by pursuing the SDA analogy. Like the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd), I hope that this new, great organisation will set up within it a small firms unit—as the SDA did—thereby giving valuable assistance not only to the great elements in investment but to the small entrepreneurs who will wish to emerge in the new companies in eastern Europe. I hope that joint ventures will be encouraged. I was interested in the comments by the hon. Member for Chichester, because I have seen, from my limited experience in travelling in eastern Europe, the great scope that exists for joint ventures.

I take issue with the hon. Member for Chichester in that I believe that the private sector in these countries cannot be expected to thrive so long as elements of the public services are so woefully deficient—I think of telecommunications and transport facilities, both of which will require great improvement if private sector investment is to pay off. The hon. Gentleman talked about the return that some investments would get. Looking at the environmental perspective of the new bank—or agency, as I prefer to call it—I believe that the return will come not necessarily in financial percentage terms but in creating a healthier environment for the whole of Europe.

A few months ago, I had an interesting conversation with a West German politican who pointed out that there would be a serious problem for the Exchequer in a united Germany. It could continue to spend a fixed amount of money on environmental improvement in what was the Federal Republic for, say, a 2 per cent. improvement in the environment, whereas the same investment in the former German Democratic Republic might produce a 6 per cent. improvement—so bad has been the legacy of those Governments.

The hon. Member for Cynon Valley criticised the private sector record of lack of care for the environment, but she should have a care—the public sector in eastern Europe has the worst such record of any area. The problems of brown coal burning, pollution of the rivers—many of which flow from eastern Europe into western Europe and into our North sea—and the dangerous state of some nuclear power stations must be cleared up. I do not believe that that can be done on a straight commercial banking, percentage return basis. That is why, although the new organisation is called a bank, I support it. It will have a wider purpose in tackling these serious environmental issues.

The Minister has almost answered my first query. I hope that this and other items of assistance to eastern Europe will not affect the general ODA budget for assistance to underdeveloped countries. It is important to assert that reassurance. As well as approving of this new organisation, it is important to make it clear that the obstacles to east-west trade will be eliminated so that the new economies can benefit from export-led growth.

What have the Government done to get rid of COCOM? I do not see how the co-ordinating committee on multilateral export controls, as it is still called, with its restrictions on high-technology exports from west to east, can be justified when we are trying to persuade industries in the east to modernise. I hope that the Minister will comment.

Like other hon. Members, I believe that it is important that the western economies should come clean on our proposal to deal with the writing off of established debt. I agree that there is no point in piling on a new organisation that is willing to lend money on top of debts that are going to be resiled on in future. Although the bank positively does not have within its remit the tackling of existing debt, that should be cleared up before the bank gets going at full steam.

Two other points that have not been raised so far in the debate genuinely puzzle me. What will be the rates of interest and how are they to be determined? Are they to be determined by general European levels, or will they operate in the London market? It is important that we know how the Governments imagine that the rates of interest will be determined.

The first article of the bank states: the purpose of the Bank shall be to foster the transition towards open market-oriented economies and to promote private and entrepreuneurial initiatives in the Central and Eastern European countries committed to and applying the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and market economics. Will priorities within the bank be determined by the European Governments or by all Governments contributing to it? Will it be made clear, for example, that Romania, so long as she continues to persecute leaders of opposition parties, will be low down the queue for assistance from the bank? How will article 1 be put into practice now?

I just want to reinforce a point made fleetingly by the hon. Member for Cynon Valley. While I welcome the creation of this bank in the United Kingdom, there is another great financial centre, as opposed to London, in a city called Edinburgh. I hope that the Government will avoid the trap of implanting all European institutions here in the south-east when there is a great opportunity for organisations and the offices and the employment that they bring to be located outside the City.