European Committee, 03 Dec 2002
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Official Report
214KB pdf
Sift
We move to the sift of EC and EU documents. John Home Robertson wants to raise a rural development issue.
The rural documents include a paper on the European agricultural guidance and guarantee fund and I am not sure about the specifics of that. Members might be interested in pursuing press reports about the European Commission's apparent failure to press for enforcement of sanctions against France for its illegal ban on British beef imports. I am not sure whether that is relevant to the document that I described, but that matter is of wide interest and raises serious questions about the credibility of the European Court of Justice's decisions. Can we seek clarification on that, with a view to considering the matter further?
I am happy to write to the Executive about that and to ask what progress is being made. Would that help?
If the matter has been dropped, we could ask why and whether it can be reopened.
Okay. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
Can we note the sift document and refer it to other parliamentary committees?
Page 8 lists a
"Proposal for a Council Regulation establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for asylum lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national."
I would like to see that proposal and I would be interested to know its implications or lack of them for Scots law.
The committee has a procedure under which members are provided with documentation. We will note that you formally requested that document and the clerk will provide you with a copy.
Could I also have document SP 3791, which is listed on page 9?
Okay.
I thank colleagues for attending the meeting. Our next meeting is in two weeks, when we will continue our European employment strategy inquiry. That will be our last meeting of the year. We will continue our inquiry next year. We hope to have at our next meeting the witnesses on whom we agreed, but if that is not possible, we will work on our corporate social responsibility inquiry early in the new year. As members know, Dennis Canavan attended a relevant conference in Denmark and would be willing to give us a brief report on that in January.
We hope to tie up the employment side of the inquiry at the next meeting. If we do not, we will have to continue that in January or February. Our meetings are scheduled fortnightly and I hope that we can proceed in that way, but we must take account of witness availability. If we have to timetable an additional meeting in January or February, we will keep members abreast of developments.
Meeting closed at 15:46.