European and External Relations Committee, 07 Oct 2008

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Official Report 175KB pdf

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“Brussels Bulletin”

Item 6 is consideration of the most recent issue of the "Brussels Bulletin". Do members have any comments on it?

At our most recent meeting, Malcolm Chisholm undertook to check with the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee what it was doing in relation to the mid-term health check of the CFP. I do not know whether he received a report back from the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee or whether we know what that committee is doing.

I will check with the clerks.

We can double-check this, but I understand that the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee is doing relatively little on that at the moment, because the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill is consuming most of its time.

We should be aware that the mid-term review is coming up. I see the dreaded words in the bulletin that Joe Borg wants to tackle such issues as

"overcapacity in the EU fleet",

which normally involves cutbacks in the Scottish fleet and all the problems that we have seen previously. We have already seen a massive cutback in the Scottish fleet and the Commission is already talking about further overcapacity in the EU fleet.

We discussed previously the possibility of having committee rapporteurs who have an interest in particular subject areas. That will form part of our report next time round. We will bear in mind your interest in the CFP.

Do members agree to note the contents of the bulletin?

Members indicated agreement.

Meeting continued in private until 12:24.