European and External Relations Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Official Report
475KB pdf
Europe 2020
Item 6 is an update on Europe 2020. We have received the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth’s positive response to our committee report, which is included in the briefing paper. If he comes to our meeting on 14 December, we can follow up on that.
Convener, you will recall that I mentioned that I was to go with the Local Government and Communities Committee to Brussels, where we had interesting meetings, particularly with the directorate-general for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities. It was made clear to us that the UK is the only country that will not set Europe 2020 targets and that it appears to have no intention of becoming involved in that. It would be interesting to know the Scottish Government’s understanding of the UK Government’s position and what discussions have taken place.
In the same meeting, we were made aware that the European Commission sought a response from Scotland to the Commission’s consultation on the future of the EU’s cohesion policy. We talked about whether the Scottish Government would respond and what the timeframe for that would be, which was interesting.
The meeting became even more interesting when the Commission officials told us that they had recently had a joint meeting with the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government to discuss many of the issues. Those officials contrasted that
“with ... a comparative ‘lack of engagement’ by Scottish actors”.
All that will be in the Local Government and Communities Committee’s report, but I thought that it was worth drawing to members’ attention, in conjunction with the paper that we are discussing, because I am now not 100 per cent sure whether the paper tells the whole story.
What you say is interesting. We can follow up those issues with the cabinet secretary when he appears before the committee.
As members know, we produced a report on our Europe 2020 inquiry, which we forwarded to the Commission. From a parliamentary perspective, we have covered the subject. In the report, we spoke about the importance of targets. The committee has taken a clear view, so that is definitely worth following up.
European officials were aware of the committee’s response.
That is good. Those points are important and we will take them forward when the cabinet secretary appears before the committee.
Are members content to agree to invite the cabinet secretary to give evidence on the budget and to raise Europe 2020 with him at that time?
Members indicated agreement.