European Committee, 03 Dec 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Official Report 214KB pdf

---

EC/EU Legislation (Implementation)

The next item is the implementation of EC/EU obligations. I assume that members have read in detail the briefing paper that was prepared by the clerk and the legal adviser. Paragraph 17 of the paper summarises the way forward. It is helpful that the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, in his letter, which forms an annexe to the report, acknowledged the committee's view that implementation should be considered at the negotiation stage and that better forward planning would help to clarify positions in future.

As the matter was passed by Jim Wallace on to Ross Finnie, I wonder whether it would be helpful to seek an assurance from the Deputy First Minister that the issues discussed would be viewed across the board at European Council meetings. That would be helpful and would be in the spirit of the contents of the paper. Is that agreed?

I draw the committee's attention to paragraph 6, which concerns directive 1999/13/EC. I agree with the recommendation; we need again to seek information in response to the specific question that we asked previously.

I am assuming that we are agreeing the paper's recommendations generally, unless any members object to them. Do members have any other points about the recommendations from the clerks and the legal adviser? They follow on from an earlier paper and seek further clarification on the basis of Ross Finnie's response in his letter. Some of the information that we are seeking has not been covered in the letter from Ross Finnie, and clarification would be useful. Is the committee agreeable to the recommendations contained in the paper?

Members indicated agreement.