Official Report 204KB pdf
The next item is the most recent issue of the Brussels Bulletin. Members will note that the covering paper proposes the introduction of a quarterly themed bulletin. We also have a briefing note from the European officer on the social agenda package.
Can I raise two issues? First, as you know, the next presidency will be held by the Czechs, whose country is roughly similar to Scotland and became independent fairly recently. In previous discussions, we agreed to consider the issue of influence and trying to get an inside track. I understood that we would talk to the Czechs, in conjunction with the Scottish Government, about what they are planning for the presidency and what impact that would potentially have on Scotland. Are we going to set that in motion?
Where have we got to on the Czech presidency?
A delegation from the committee will go to Brussels on 29 September. As part of that visit, we will meet officials from the Czech presidency. We also agreed to the possibility of a meeting at a political level. The idea is to meet the officials initially and then see whether there is a need for follow-up at a political level.
The second issue that I want to raise is the issue of the European Parliament voting to include aviation within the ambit of the emissions trading scheme. I wonder whether we should do anything about that or whether we should simply draw it to the attention of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee. At the moment, aviation is exempt from fuel duty and the like. There would be a lot of ramifications to aviation coming into the ambit of the emissions trading scheme.
That issue is relevant to those committees and to the discussions on the proposed climate change bill. The committees will have received a copy of the bulletin, but we can draw the matter to their attention.
Joe Borg's health check on the common fisheries policy was launched on 19 July and was supposed to report in the first week of September. Do we know whether that report has been issued?
I am not sure, but we can get the European officer to provide that information.
The health check might reveal that the common fisheries policy is dead—who knows? However, I fear not.
I was interested to read about the directive relating to cross-border health care. It strikes me as a radical alteration to the health care to which people throughout the EU will be entitled. Has the Health and Sport Committee considered the matter?
I think that it has taken an interest in it. However, I do not know whether the directive will be agreed anytime soon, as it seems pretty controversial.
The Parliament's European officer gave a presentation to the Health and Sport Committee at its away day, so that committee is well apprised of the details.
How specialised would the proposed special editions of the bulletin be? How big an area would they cover? Would they go into issues such as the health and aviation issues that members have just mentioned, or would they cover just the big, headline themes?
As paragraph 6 of the committee's paper states, the idea is that they will focus on the four key themes that have been identified by the committee, the first of which is energy and climate change. The fourth key theme is economic and social issues, which would include the health issue.
Could a special edition specialise in a certain health issue, or is the idea that each special edition will cover all of those themes?
The initial idea is for each special edition to cover all four key themes, although there will be different strands within that.
Okay. Are members content with that?
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