Official Report 367KB pdf
The bulletin says:
We all agree that minority languages are a good thing and that they have been well promoted in this Parliament.
I was interested in the common agricultural policy reforms and the French group of 16 personalities, including chefs, writers and businesspeople. I do not know whether Gordon Ramsay will be involved in that, but it sounds like his French equivalents might be.
I read that comment too, and I was puzzled by it because I know that there is the facility for simultaneous translation of Gaelic in the Committee of the Regions. UKREP signed an agreement to allow for that, so translation already happens in the Committee of the Regions. There has been a financial package, which is backed by UKREP, to support that facility.
Item 4 is consideration of the “Brussels Bulletin”. Do colleagues want to raise any points or seek clarification on any issues that the bulletin raises, or are they content to note its contents? Ian Duncan’s bulletin brings a number of interesting issues to our attention. From looking round the table, I think that colleagues might want to ask about one or two issues.
I will make two little points. First, it is interesting to see that the Committee on Fisheries has at long last produced its report on the reform of the common fisheries policy. I note that the bulletin refers to the comments of Ian Hudghton and Struan Stevenson. Although everyone seems to be saying all the right things, there is still no indication as to how we are to achieve the happy state to which Ian Hudghton and Struan Stevenson refer. We will watch that one.
Sorry, I missed that, as I was reading another point.
The comments that have been made by colleagues in Europe are interesting, but it might be worth pointing out to them—this is not a political point but a debating point—that it was a Labour-Liberal Executive here that took forward the legislation that enshrined the place of Gaelic and that launched the Gaelic television channel, with cross-party support, obviously. Across the political spectrum in this Parliament, the issue is not seen in the same way as in that comment.
I think that the Spanish Government view is bizarre. Another way of putting that argument is to say, “If you want to avoid any separatist groups from gaining momentum in parts of your country, suppress minority languages,” which has been tried in the past and has not proved to be very successful. It is a bizarre and reactionary view, although some aspects of the Spanish Government have been quite reactionary in recent times.
The view perhaps just reflects the violent past of some fringe minority nationalist movements in Spain.
They can use some of his minority language.
Certainly. The CAP is going be huge and will move further and further up the agenda.
The comments about Iceland are very interesting, not to say significant. If one criterion for EU membership is suitability of institutions, I would have thought that it is entirely questionable whether Iceland is in a position to join at this time. I have no problem with Iceland joining—it would be good—but I think that the EU needs to think about the application more broadly.
My understanding is that there would be careful monitoring and auditing of what is happening before any further positive discussions took place, but we could clarify that with Ian Duncan.
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