European and External Relations Committee, 15 Dec 2009
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Official Report
198KB pdf
Correspondence
Item 4 is correspondence from the Scottish Government. The original paperwork that was sent out to members had some papers missing, which was why I thought that the original letter started in a strange place. However, we now have two sets of paperwork, and I apologise for what happened. The revised paperwork is complete.
Members will see that there are two letters, one of which is from the previous Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, Mike Russell, following his appearance at the committee on 29 September. I wrote to him after that because the committee felt that a number of outstanding issues had not been addressed.
One of those issues, which I still do not think has been addressed in the previous minister's reply, is in relation to ministerial attendance at council meetings. Mr Russell clearly stated to the committee that there had been ministerial attendance at 10 meetings, but we pointed out that there were 31 further meetings at which there had been no ministerial attendance. He undertook to look at every meeting and provide us with a full exploration of why ministerial attendance had not been possible, but that has not been done. We need to take up that outstanding point with the new Minister for Culture and External Affairs.
Do members have any points on the first ministerial letter?
I have not yet managed to find it among the papers.
I will give colleagues a minute to look through the papers.
We also asked the minister to provide international documents, which he said he expected would revert to the committee shortly. Obviously, that may be part of our later discussion in private on how we take forward the international inquiry. I would be content to note that part for the minute on the basis that we are going to discuss it later, but I also express disappointment, as I did to the minister during the meeting, that the refreshed North America plan is now about a year and a half overdue. In addition, the India plan has not come at all.
Is there anything else colleagues wish to raise?
I presume that we will see the new minister early in the new year.
Yes. We are looking to schedule a meeting early in the new year: we could raise then some of the matters to which I have referred. However, we have received a ministerial response, so it would in the first instance be fair to give the minister an opportunity to look into the issues that we feel have not been adequately addressed. If colleagues are content with that, we will proceed on that basis.
Our second letter, which is from John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, has helpful and relevant information about the transposition of the EU services directive. I have discussed the matter with the clerks. The cabinet secretary has pointed out to the committee a number of the directive's implications, which cover a wide range of areas. It is the committee's job to monitor transposition—all of us are grappling to ensure that we transpose the directive properly. It might be helpful to invite an official to explain further how the process is likely to pan out, in order to ensure that we are doing all that we need to do to meet requirements. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.