European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Official Report 348KB pdf

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“Brussels Bulletin”

Item 3 is our consideration of the “Brussels Bulletin”. Ian Duncan is not with us today, but we can ask him to report back to the committee with any further information that we may require.

The bulletin contains further information on the cross-border health directive, which is of interest. Michael Matheson, who is also a member of the Health and Sport Committee, can relay the information to that committee. Members will recall that the Spanish presidency is not particularly keen on aspects of the directive. Given the high number of elderly people who go to Spain in the winter time, one can imagine that Spain is worried that it might have responsibility for their health care. A compromise deal appears to have been worked out to allow further discussion of the matter in the European Parliament in the autumn.

The issue is important, and I am happy to continue to facilitate further information on the subject. It might be helpful to find out who in the European Parliament is leading on this. We should find out who the rapporteur and the committee chair are and invite them to Scotland. Clearly, the European Parliament has responsibility for agreeing on the proposal in the autumn. If we see something that is pertinent from the Scottish perspective, we can take the initiative. I am thinking of our inquiry into the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon on Scotland. Perhaps we should discuss the matter with Ian Duncan, given the Health and Sport Committee’s interest.

Obviously, the Health and Sport Committee has expressed an interest in the subject. We discussed European issues at committee—I think that it was a fortnight ago—in greater detail than we have probably done over the past three years. That is a good sign. It would be worth while for us to pursue the issue. If we do that, we should inform the Health and Sport Committee in case any of its members want to participate in any evidence-taking session that we may hold. Given the Health and Sport Committee’s current work programme, I suspect that it will be difficult for that committee to hold a session on the subject.

We are well on schedule for our inquiry into the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon on Scotland, so we have a bit of flexibility. We will undertake further scrutiny and so forth after the recess and we could use the example to test how we take forward issues such as pilots. We should pursue the matter.

I am sorry to sound like a broken record, but the report mentions the common agricultural policy. It says:

“The Commission is expected to publish its post 2013 CAP proposals by the end of 2010.”

I do not want to sound parochial, albeit that I suppose I will, in saying that George Lyon is involved in the matter. He wrote up the draft, which I think took some 200-plus amendments. About a year ago, the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee got a wee bit territorial on the subject of the CAP. Given that we are still not too sure how such matters are being scrutinised, perhaps Ian Duncan could liaise with our MEPs—including, obviously, George Lyon—find out exactly where we are and give us a brief report.

11:30

Interestingly enough, I spoke to the agriculture commissioner in Brussels last week and did a little promotion for the committee in the five or so minutes that I had. He told me that he is in Scotland this week—

Highland Show business, is it?

Yes, he is coming to the Highland Show. We might have missed a bit of a trick, because I would have liked to invite him to the Parliament. I began to wonder whether he had picked up incorrectly which Parliament I was from, because he said, “No, no, I’m coming to Edinburgh.” I alerted the clerks, but I do not know whether we could do anything at this late stage.

It would have been great to have the commissioner come into the Parliament and to invite members of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee and ourselves to have a face-to-face discussion. At the Committee of the Regions, he made it clear that he is open for business and wants to hear what regional Parliaments are thinking about the common agricultural policy review. He was positive in promoting ideas such as local produce and farmers markets, and discussing how we could accommodate such things. He was very interested—

Are we too late?

I will ask Simon Watkins, as I approached him about it. Simon, is there any possibility of arranging something, even at this late stage?

The latest intelligence that we have is that the commissioner is visiting Edinburgh on 24 June, for the morning only, to attend the show at Ingliston.

Is there something missing in the communications between Brussels and here if the fact that someone like that is coming to Scotland was not flagged up?

I think so. It used to be that the European Commission office in Edinburgh would contact us when a commissioner was coming. As I said, I had a brief discussion with the commissioner, in which I was totally taken aback that he was coming to Edinburgh and we did not know about it. I thought that that did not augur well, and if the committee is content we will continue to explore the possibility of a meeting. I do not know whether his flights are already arranged, but if he could stay on even just an extra hour, he could come into the Parliament and hear from us first hand. From my discussions with him and from what I heard him say at the Committee of the Regions, he is very keen and open to doing that kind of business. This is an opportunity missed, and I am surprised that the Commission office in Edinburgh did not advise him to come into the Parliament.

Could we pursue the issue with the Commission office in Edinburgh to say that we would like to be notified as early as possible when commissioners are coming over, to see whether we can arrange anything?

Is Neil Mitchison still the representative?

Yes, he is.

Why do we not invite the commissioner to come?

Yes, we could do that. I phoned the clerks from Brussels last week and said, “I’ve just been speaking to the European commissioner and he’s coming to Edinburgh. What can we do?” I am happy to explore that option. If we are to be an informed conduit, as we have suggested that we should be, we will have to put in place procedures for these things. It used to be a matter of course, and I am surprised that we have not been informed, but if you leave it with me I will certainly pick up on it.

Jim, did you have anything to add?

Not really. However, if that does not happen, could we still get Ian Duncan to talk to MEPs—particularly George Lyon?

Yes, because we said that we wanted rapporteurs. Is George the official rapporteur for the European Parliament?

Yes, he is.

Okay.

This point is on another issue entirely. The bulletin refers to the 2020 strategy and the fact that, even in this European year for combating poverty and social exclusion, there has been a to-do about the target—which I do not think is overly ambitious but which is welcome—to reduce the number of Europeans who live in poverty by 25 per cent. It is disappointing that there has been a fracas.

Reference is made in the bulletin to member states arguing about the definition of poverty and to the compromise arrangement that is now in place, with various different standards and member states being able to adopt whichever standard they want. It would be useful to have information on the United Kingdom Government’s position going in to the negotiations and, as a different Government is now deciding which standard to use, on the position now.

I am quite happy to get that information. I had a meeting with the Belgian ambassador—as you know, the Belgians will take over the presidency in July—and told him that the committee was concerned about the poverty targets. He told me that the Belgian presidency would look at them carefully. It appears that Belgium is supportive of looking carefully at the poverty targets and bringing member states on board in relation to those. We have one or two allies on that.

There are no other comments. Can we agree the report?

Members indicated agreement.

As usual, we will send it to the subject committees.