European Committee, 03 Dec 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Official Report 214KB pdf

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Scottish Executive (Scrutiny)

Okay, colleagues. Let us formally reconvene. I have to attend the conveners liaison group meeting at 4 o'clock, as we have a bid in for a one-hour committee debate on Scotland's representation in Brussels. There are a lot of competing bids, so it is important that I attend that meeting to argue our case. If we have not finished by 4 o'clock, John Home Robertson will take over as convener. However, with luck we will get through the remaining business by then.

Item 2 is pre and post-European Council scrutiny. The recommendations are on page 3 of the paper that committee members have received. We will start with the meeting of the general affairs and external relations council. The recommendation is to note the information that is provided. I also note that everything came in on time. It is important to record the fact that we seem to be getting a system in place whereby the documents reach us on time. That is very good news.

The recommendation on the environment council report is to note the information that has been received and to note also the helpful level of detail that has been provided. For a pre-agenda report, it contains some helpful detail.

I agree. The report is detailed enough to be useful and we can understand what the dynamics are. Without revealing anyone's hand in advance, it gives a sense of what is happening. I agree strongly with the clerk's recommendation.

It is an excellent model for other departments to try to replicate. If we commend that as a good piece of work, perhaps other departments will try to maintain that high standard.

I presume that we will pass that report on to the Transport and the Environment Committee.

Yes, we will. The next agenda is that of the agriculture and fisheries council.

Ah, well, that is another story. Nul points.

The agenda is on page 11 of the clerk's paper. Parts of it are reasonably detailed. However, the part that seems to be missing is the fisheries part. I understand that it is a delicate and sensitive situation. Perhaps it is a fluid situation and we should give the council the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, it might be worth while writing to the minister to ask for an update on the progress that is being made. We should also commend some of the other agendas for providing the level of detail that the committee welcomes. Is that agreed?

We understand why the council has not wanted to put much on paper up front, but we will expect a fairly detailed report back.

The council members obviously have genuine and serious difficulties in the pre-negotiations. Nonetheless, it would have been useful if even a last-minute report could have been provided to the clerk to bring us up to date, even on a confidential basis.

We are all in agreement on that.

The next agenda is for the justice and home affairs council. We note the report and welcome the level of detail that has been provided.

Let us now move on to the post-event report on the meeting of the general affairs and external relations council on 18 and 19 November. We welcome the detail of the report and note its content. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Similarly, we note the content and welcome the detail of the report on the competitiveness council's meeting of 14 and 15 November. I also note that Iain Gray was present at that meeting. I bumped into him on the way back from Brussels. It is useful to have the input from the Scottish Executive as well.

On page 23 of the paper we are told that a joint work programme on competitiveness is being drafted, taking into account the current Danish and forthcoming Greek and then Italian presidencies. It is helpful to know that that long look ahead is being taken. It might be useful to the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee if we seek further information about what that forward work plan might look like and pass that on to our colleagues in that committee. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

On page 19 of the paper there is a paragraph on "Trade and poverty reduction". I want to flag up to members who may not have seen the motions that I lodged the other week the fact that there is a consultation paper from the Department of Trade and Industry out just now which is relevant to that paragraph. The committee has been involved in such work in the past and I urge colleagues to ensure that they make submissions to that consultation on the general agreement on trade in services.