European Committee, 28 Jan 2003
Meeting date: Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Official Report
215KB pdf
Sift
The next item is our sift of European Community and European Union documents. Can we note the paper and forward it to the relevant committees?
Members indicated agreement.
I forgot to mention something in the convener's report item. It just came up today so if you will bear with me, I will update you.
Colleagues will recall that we wrote to the president of the future of Europe convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. We received a letter written in French from M d'Estaing thanking the committee for its work and informing us that the next meeting of the convention is going to deal with the question of local and regional government. That meeting will be on 6 and 7 February.
It is important to put it on the public record that the committee lobbied hard for recognition of the role of local and regional government in the work of the convention. It is also important that the president of the convention has written back to us thanking us for the interest that we are taking and encouraging us to take our interest forward. He has invited us to participate in the contact group, but it is meeting tomorrow and we received the letter only today, so it is short notice.
The committee agreed to work with our colleagues in Flanders and Catalonia to prepare a joint paper. We are still trying to agree with them a paper that we could jointly submit to the convention, along with our own paper, which we agreed some weeks ago. It is important to note the progress that has been made and that the work that the committee is doing is having some effect.
I apologise, as I meant to mention that matter under the convener's report.