European and External Relations Committee, 09 Sep 2008

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Official Report 204KB pdf

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COSAC Subsidiarity Pilot

The next item is consideration of a paper by the clerk on the pilot subsidiarity check that is being conducted by the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union, or COSAC.

I ask for comments in the first instance, before we consider the recommendation, which does not commit us to much. The committee is invited to agree

"To supply the Scottish Government's response to the UK Parliament"

and

"To review its own inquiry into the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on Scotland following the meeting of the European Council in October."

Do members have any comments?

I have a comment on the timing. Because of the way things worked out, the committee had no opportunity to respond before the deadline for submissions. Why was that? Was it because the European Union works to a timescale that does not fit in with our recess?

Which paragraph is that?

That is covered in paragraphs 4 to 6. The fact that we had no opportunity to respond is unfortunate and is somewhat against the principles of subsidiarity. It means that this devolved Parliament, through the committee that is responsible for the area, had no opportunity to participate.

Was the recess the problem?

Essentially, the timescale is eight weeks from the publication of the proposals. What we are discussing is just a pilot, but the EU rules that would be introduced under the Lisbon treaty would allow eight weeks for national Parliaments to respond. We fell outwith the deadline because of the recess.

I do not suppose that there is much to say about that, except that it is unfortunate.

The committee might want to consider the matter when we return to the issue of subsidiarity.

The committee is conducting an inquiry into the impact of the Lisbon treaty, but more and more it looks as though the treaty is dead. The chance that the EU will get the Irish to hold another referendum is practically zilch. The attitude of the Poles, fortunately, and some other folk with some common sense suggests that we should question whether it is a useful employment of our time to inquire into something that is not going to happen.

The recommendation is that we see what happens at the European Council in October.

But if the Tories win, they will kill it off anyway.

We can defer a decision, not until the next Tory Government comes in, but just until October.

Are members content to wait for another month? It would be premature to make a decision before then.

Members indicated agreement.