Official Report 227KB pdf
The next agenda item is the "Brussels Bulletin".
I am not sure whether this is covered in the "Brussels Bulletin", but it is clear that the French have pulled a fast one in the budget on the common agricultural policy. It might be useful to draw that to the attention of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee and ask whether it is doing any work on that. The French have blatantly used the presidency to ambush the European Community and ensure that we continue to subsidise French farmers heavily. We could look at that, because it also prejudges the outcome of the budget review. Our spending on the common agricultural policy as a share of the total budget will be only about 5 per cent less. That is still a significant amount, and it prejudices the balance of funding.
Our next agenda item is to consider the report from the European officer on the Commission's conference on the budget. It is clear that any flexibility in the budget in later years will depend on CAP reform, but I am not sure that the situation is tied up further than 2012. Ian Duncan reports the current status on page 5 of the bulletin, and I think that further reforms are for after then. However, it is worth keeping an eye on the issue and passing it on to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee.
My understanding was that something had been agreed for beyond 2012. We do not necessarily need to examine the issue in depth, but we should ensure that the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee is aware of it.
One point that was raised in the Committee of the Regions resolution on the Commission's legislative and work programme was much better co-ordination between agricultural and other policy initiatives, which involves better partnership and complementarity. There is some scope, and we can certainly consider that.
We should also draw the attention of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee to the proposals to relax state aid rules on direct support for business. I have not looked at the detail, but it might give the Scottish Government some flexibility in, for example, awarding regional selective assistance and grant aid to industry. If the subject committee does not look at that, we could perhaps consider its implications.
I would be happy to do that. It ties in with the European recovery plan and how we assist small and medium-sized enterprises at this difficult time.