Finance Committee, 03 Apr 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 3, 2001

Official Report 149KB pdf

---

Europe Familiarisation Visit

The next item is not substantial. I have finished the report on my Europe familiarisation visit of two weeks ago, which has been circulated for members to read. I outline the full responsibility of the European Parliament's Budgets Committee. The visit was useful and we have made contact with Terry Wynn MEP, the chair of that committee. He hopes to visit Scotland later in the year, when I hope members will have the opportunity to meet him.

I do not want to add anything to the report. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend a meeting of the Budgets Committee, as it was not sitting that week. However, I attended a meeting of the Budgetary Control Committee, which is roughly equivalent to this Parliament's Audit Committee. I have to say that the session was pretty turgid, with many members repeating what had just been said. Apart from the fact that the meetings of that committee are not chaired as rigorously as those of this committee, there was a considerable amount to learn from the visit.

Terry Wynn gave me two useful publications on the European Parliament's budgetary process. I have passed them on to Callum Thomson; they will be available from the clerks should committee members want to peruse them. Do members have any questions on the visit?

Did you receive from the MEPs any indication of changes in their thinking about structural funds? It would be interesting to get the European perspective on the allocation of the funds, in contrast to what we do with them.

No, we did not go into structural funds in detail. The meeting to which I referred, at which I was joined by Kenny Gibson, was a bit of a disappointment, as it was pretty basic. I had hoped to go into greater detail, but there was no opportunity for that. We received a briefing on the various aspects of the thinking about the enlargement of the European Union, which will have a bearing on structural funding. However, the meeting dealt with outline proposals and nothing specific.