European and External Relations Committee, 13 Nov 2007
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Official Report
197KB pdf
European Commission Legislative and Work Programme
The final agenda item is the European Commission's legislative and work programme for 2008, which was published on 23 October. Members may recall that on 4 September, the committee agreed to consult subject committees and stakeholders annually on the programme, with a view to prioritising issues that could have a significant impact on Scotland.
To assist that consultation, the Parliament's European officer has helpfully provided an initial analysis of the programme at annex A to paper EU/S3/07/7/4, which gives an overview of the issues that are detailed in the programme. The principal criterion for including an issue in that annex is that it affects devolved matters or relates to the Scottish Government's EU priorities. The full programme is attached at annex B. Do members have comments?
I agree entirely with the clerk's recommendations. The second recommendation is:
"To invite a representative from the Commission to attend a future meeting of the Committee".
Once we have the feedback from the subject committees, we may need to invite more than one Commission representative. For example, I am sure that the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee will be concerned about the common fisheries policy and reform of the common agricultural policy. Responding to those concerns might involve more than one Commission official, as I doubt whether one official could handle both those matters.
Given the responses that we might receive from the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and other committees, we should be a bit more flexible and say that we will invite Commission representatives as appropriate to attend a meeting. We might go the other way in some cases: if an issue were of burning concern, we and a representative of the relevant subject committee might meet the Commission. What the clerk drives at is absolutely correct, but perhaps our wording should be a bit more flexible and we should leave our options open on how best to proceed and who we want to talk to after we have had discussions.
I agree with that proposal. The document on European issues for the year ahead that shows where the Commission's priorities fit in with the Parliament's committee structure is really good and useful for us. Distributing that to stakeholders might be useful, if we are considering inviting some of them to give evidence. Many stakeholders are now set up to engage with the Parliament's committees, and a wider analysis of how committee work dovetails with European work would be useful for them.
Annex A is a particularly useful document. It is perhaps the best-laid-out version of the EU's legislative programme that I have seen. It will help us and subject committees.
My response to Alex Neil is that it is important that we do not hog the Commission. Some of the issues are extremely important, such as the fisheries and maritime stuff for the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee. I suspect that other committees will want to engage directly with the Commission and with Europe on some of the issues and not just operate through us.
It would be useful for us to co-ordinate the approach among committees.
We have a co-ordinating role but, at the end of the day, the development of the Scottish Parliament's views on issues is the responsibility of subject committees, not this committee. Subject committees must engage directly if they want clarity on the issues.
I agree.
Annex A to our paper and annex 1 to the Commission's paper are both helpful. Annex A identifies by subject committee some issues, but other parts of the Commission's work programme that are not mentioned in our paper are very relevant to the work of the Parliament and of some parliamentary committees. I will highlight those issues.
First, page 17 of the Commission's paper refers to a Council recommendation on health care associated infections that is relevant to the health agenda in Scotland, but it is not mentioned in our paper. I do not want the Health and Sport Committee to receive the paper but miss that recommendation. Secondly, page 27 of the Commission's document mentions a new programme to protect children who use the internet and new media, which is relevant to the Parliament's work. Thirdly, I would quite like to see the research paper on sport in education. I read the documentation a wee while ago. I cannot find the reference to it, but it does exist. The paper considers the importance of sport in the primary sector to prevent obesity and so on, and compares the situation in different member states. I am interested in seeing the paper, which is relevant to the Health and Sport Committee.
Why do we not point out the relevant issues in the Commission's paper in the cover note that we send to other committees?
We can send other committees annex A and add what Irene Oldfather has helpfully mentioned. If anybody else spots anything, I have no doubt that it can be passed on to the committees.
Members are basically happy with the recommendations. On John Park's point, the information will be made available to stakeholders. As for Alex Neil's point, the clerk's thinking was that someone from the Commission should give an overview, but a further level of questioning is possible—whether that would involve us or the subject committees could be resolved as appropriate. With those provisos, members are happy with the clerk's paper.
I thank members for their attendance.
Meeting closed at 11:46.