European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Official Report 548KB pdf

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“Brussels Bulletin”

We move on to agenda item 3, which is the “Brussels Bulletin”. We are really pushed for time, so Ian Duncan has said that he will be quick. If members have any questions about the bulletin, please get them in quickly.

I will just go through a couple of the things that are in the bulletin. The big thing that is worth noting is that the EU budget for the coming year has been passed. As members may remember, there were some discussions about how the failure to agree the budget would affect various funding programmes. I draw your attention to the comments from the EU budget commissioner, who has said:

“There is a serious risk that we will run out of funds early in the course of next year. I am concerned that by systematically cutting the Commission’s estimates, the Council transforms the EU annual budget in a budget for 9 to 10 months; last year we ran out of cash to pay all the claims in November, this year was in October and next year I expect this to happen even earlier.”

That is something to bear in mind.

The common fisheries policy negotiations are on-going, but the fishing quota negotiations in December have taken place. I know that the deputy convener has been interested in the mackerel issue, which has not yet been resolved. The quotas for mackerel, which are set bilaterally between the EU and Norway, have not yet been set. All the quotas for the North Sea stocks have yet to be set because the mackerel issue has not been resolved. The quotas for the mackerel and herring stocks have not been set. That discussion should take place in January, but you will see that progress has been very slow on that.

On cigarette packaging, it is worth while noting that the original plan that there should be no fancy packaging but just brown packaging has been set aside. There will be large health warnings, but there will not be complete brown-paper packaging. There is a proposal to ban flavoured cigarettes, such as menthol cigarettes, outright.

On funding for renewables projects, Scotland has been successful, with two projects having received money. One of those is in the Sound of Islay and the other is in the Kyle Rhea area.

One final point is that it is worth while noting that the gender ruling on insurance finally came into place on 21 December. You might well find in your postbags correspondence from both men and women complaining—in different directions, no doubt—about the increase in the cost of their insurance policies.

Does the fact that we now have an EU budget mean that we now have a budget figure for the common agricultural policy?

No, it does not. A budget has been agreed only for this year of 2013. The big discussions on the multi-annual financial framework, which covers 2014 to 2020, have not yet been resolved. The multi-annual financial framework will give us the figure for the CAP and other things. However, the agreement means that the Parliament and the Council seem willing to compromise on this year’s budget, which might or might not be a good sign for the negotiations over the bigger financial framework.

The bulletin includes a useful marker about this being the European year of citizens. Will you follow that up with a bit more detail on what will actually happen for the year?

Yes, I can do so. The European year of citizens is an EU-wide idea, but basically the member state has to say what it intends to do. It might be useful to provide a small note on what the UK and Scottish Governments intend to do to mark the year of citizens.

That would be helpful.

On the mackerel issue, given Iceland’s involvement in fishing for the mackerel reserves that we helped to build, what action if any are we taking? Is there the possibility of a ban on imports of fish from Iceland because of that?

You are quite right to raise the issue again. You will recall that, when we spoke about this the last time, the discussion of a ban on various aspects was imminent. The ban has run into the ground, primarily because the imports affect employment inside the EU for the processing of the mackerel. The issue has therefore become a little bit more complicated than one might have liked. At the moment, that is still on-going. It is hoped—I think that this is a slightly forlorn hope—that the January negotiations will resolve the issues. I will provide more information when I come back from Brussels, but I am not overly optimistic that the issues can be resolved, and they may lead to questions about the quotas for the North Sea. The Icelandic issue is the one that has to be lanced.

How can we engage to try to ensure that there is some sort of recompense by the Icelandic Government on that issue?

It might be worth while my having informal discussions with the Scottish Government to see where it stands on the issue. I know that the UK Government has expressed concerns about the employment issues, but I would like to find out a bit more about where Scotland stands. If I can find that out, I can bring it back and say exactly what the Scottish and UK Governments intend to do to try to bring the issue to resolution.

On the announcement about new funding for carbon capture and storage, how is that funding opportunity made known to Scottish companies?

You might remember that the Longannet plant in Scotland was up for funding but, for various reasons, did not secure it. The money was intended to go to a large French operation, but in the end the funding fell through because the operation was unable to meet the criteria that would have been the justification for securing the money. Therefore, no money was spent on carbon capture and storage, which was surprising.

I assume that the Scottish Government will be pushing hard in the new funding cycle to get money for Longannet and that Longannet will be further on in the process. I believe that the Scottish Government is currently discussing the opportunity with the energy companies—the stakeholders who have the potential facilities—and encouraging them to be ready for that particular funding stream. It is a lot of money.

So the companies will be fully aware that the funding announcement has been made?

Yes, I am absolutely certain of that.

Is the committee content to send the “Brussels Bulletin” to other committees for their perusal?

Members indicated agreement.