Justice 2 Committee, 24 Jan 2001

Meeting date: Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Official Report 89KB pdf

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Europe Familiarisation Scheme

Agenda item 4 is the appointment of a delegate for a visit to the European Parliament. This item previously appeared on the agenda at the Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

The visit is part of the Parliament's Europe familiarisation scheme and is intended mainly for conveners, but that does not mean that another member of the committee could not attend. The delegate must be available for a briefing session, which will take place on 19 February. What do members think that we should do?

When is the visit to the European Parliament?

It will take place on 19 to 21 March.

Can you clarify the purpose of the visit? If we can decide what we want to get from the visit, that would give us an idea of who we want to send.

The visit has been organised by the Presiding Officer's office as part of a familiarisation programme. So far, most committees have elected that their convener go, but the decision is open to us. A previous briefing on Europe made it apparent that we should pay more attention than we do at present to what is coming out of Europe. We are all in the same boat, since our knowledge of Europe is pretty limited.

When we discuss our forward work programme, we can discuss what we want to get from the visit, However, I think that we want to find out what mechanisms we can use to scrutinise regulations. We might not want to wait until the visit to consider that. I would have thought that that would be a primary concern for the committee.

With all due respect, going to the European Parliament is fine for networking and so on, but it is not the place to learn about the policy-making procedure of the European Union. Such a huge amount of regulation is coming through now, as a result of the European convention on human rights, that it would be advisable for you, convener, to have talks with whoever you talk to and ask to go to speak directly to some of your opposite numbers.

The European Parliament is not the main place to go to, because of the way in which the European Union is structured. As justice is still not fully incorporated, I suggest that there are other more appropriate institutions that you could visit. But you could go to the European Parliament as well—you would have a nice time.

Does anyone have strong feelings about going?

It would be useful for the convener to go, but if she were to demur, I would not mind going, as I have an interest in European affairs.

Our previous briefing was interesting—we are all beginning to get alerted to things that sort of snuck in the back door. We have entitlement, albeit restricted, to make representations on how European legislation affects Scottish justice, particularly criminal and civil law.

I am not unhappy about the convener going but, if she has better things to do in March, I would be willing to go.

Bearing in mind all that has been said, particularly by Margo MacDonald, we can investigate the possibility of who we would like to meet that would match up with our interests.

If the committee agrees, I will attempt to go to the European Parliament and, in the event of my being unable to go, Christine Grahame will take my place.

Okay—although it is up to other members.

I am happy to support Christine Grahame's application. We will have Christine on the subs' bench in the event that the convener is unable or unwilling to go.

Are we all agreed?

Members indicated agreement.