European and External Relations Committee, 09 Sep 2008

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Official Report 204KB pdf

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Interests

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the 14th meeting this calendar year of the European and External Relations Committee. Before we start this morning's business, I have some bad news: this is the last meeting for Jim Johnston, our esteemed clerk, who is going on secondment to—wait for it—the House of Lords. I am sure that you would all like to join me in thanking Jim for all his hard and incredibly efficient work over two years and in wishing him well in his new position. I think that he will be working with the European Union Select Committee of the House of Lords—perhaps we can develop good relations with the Lords on European issues. We have two new clerks who will share the position, Simon Watkins and Lynn Tullis, who are here in the room. They will be taking over at the next meeting. I also welcome our new assistant clerk, Lewis McNaughton, who is already sitting at the table.

We have received apologies from Patricia Ferguson, Jim Hume and Gil Paterson. We welcome Keith Brown, who will be attending as Gil's substitute.

Item 1 is a declaration of interests, which arises because we are welcoming a new member to the committee. We are very glad to see Jamie Hepburn here and, as is customary, I invite him to declare any relevant interests.

Thank you, convener. I have nothing to declare beyond what is publicly available in my entry in the register of members' interests.

Thank you, Jamie. I should have added Irene Oldfather to the list of apologies for today's meeting.