European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Official Report 475KB pdf

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“Brussels Bulletin”

The next item on our agenda is the “Brussels Bulletin”. Ian Duncan has spent quite a bit of time on the common agricultural policy in this bulletin, so it is a shame that Ted Brocklebank and Jim Hume are not here to benefit from it. Do colleagues have any points on the bulletin?

I was previously on the Equal Opportunities Committee, where I was the disability reporter. I note from the bulletin that a new, 10-year disability strategy has just been published.

Are you looking at page 5?

There is information about the strategy’s publication on the front page and there is more detail on page 5. I am not sure whether we have to catch up on issues or whether we could contribute to the European strategy, which has been published. There is bound to be some crossover, and the Equal Opportunities Committee might benefit from receiving the strategy.

We send the bulletin to the Equal Opportunities Committee, but given your experience as a reporter we should perhaps write to the convener to highlight the issue and ask whether we can do anything to assist.

It occurred to me that the European Union Bill has been introduced in the House of Commons. I have not had an opportunity to look at it in detail, but given that we are promoting our early warning initiative on how we consider issues on behalf of the Parliament, it might be useful if the clerks had a quick look at the bill and reported back to us at our next meeting. For example, it occurs to me that if a referendum were to be called on a matter, it might be useful to have data published at European parliamentary level, which in Scotland would mean at Scottish level. I think that there would be interest in making information available at sub-state level in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. I have not gone into detail, but we are probably the only committee that would consider the bill, so we should perhaps consider whether anything should be drawn to the attention of the Parliament or a parliamentary committee. If there is an issue, we could discuss it at our next meeting. Are members content with that?

Members indicated agreement.

Do members agree to note the contents of the bulletin? There is much detail on the common agricultural policy, which we will highlight for the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee.

Members indicated agreement.