Environment and Rural Development Committee, 15 Sep 2004
Meeting date: Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Official Report
339KB pdf
European Issues
I welcome members of the committee, witnesses, the press and members of the public and I remind everyone to switch off their mobile phones.
Our first agenda item is European issues. Members have a paper from me and will remember that we agreed to have regular updates on European issues and legislative proposals to enable us to identify future work programme decisions. This morning we consider our third update, which identifies some of the current issues in the European Union and in particular issues that are relevant to the committee's remit, many of which have an impact on our regular work programme and are being closely followed by the committee.
For the record and so that members of the public and people who read our website have a sense of the issues that are cropping up, I will list issues that the paper identifies. They are: the build-up to the United Kingdom presidency of the EU in 2005; the EU review of the sustainable development strategy; the implementation of the waste electrical and electronic equipment—WEEE—directive; the proposals for directives on batteries and ground water, which are important in the context of waste management; negotiations on the proposed registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals—REACH—policy; the review of climate change policy, which is topical this week; the implementation of the European environment and health action plan; the management of fisheries resources and proposals for a new fisheries structural fund; the development of regional advisory councils and the proposed European fisheries control agency; the proposed new rural development regulation, which is important in the light of the work that the committee carried out this year on reforming the common agricultural policy and rural development; and the implementation of the European action plan for organic food and farming.
A lot of heavy issues are covered in the paper, so I invite members to decide how we should pursue them over the coming months. Do members want to hear oral evidence from the Minister for Environment and Rural Development? We will have a chance to raise issues with the minister today after we have taken evidence on the Water Services etc (Scotland) Bill. Members might want more written briefings or clarification on topics, or they might want to add topics to our work programme. If members do not want to raise anything, are they content to accept and note the paper?
I would like more details about the action plan for organic food and farming. The minister has made remarks about the need for farmers in various parts of the country to cut costs as part of an overall drive to slim down the sector and to make it more competitive. The organic targets and action plan should be considered in that context.
Do members agree with Rob Gibson? We have certainly been pursuing the matter quite heavily; we wrote to the minister about the need to ensure that organics feature highly in the next review of the overall strategy for agriculture.
I would like an update on how we are coping with the WEEE directive, because its implementation will have a lot of practical implications and I am not confident that we are far enough down the road of putting in place the practical measures that will be needed.
We should ask the minister about fisheries, because the situation keeps shifting. Negotiations continue—for example, an increase in the permitted number of days at sea has been proposed.
A paper is attached to the convener's paper on European issues at annex B, which sets out the process by which decisions were made about the regulations on total allowable catch and quotas for haddock. The record shows that I have asked about the process in relation to local offices and the way in which information is fed out. I want to follow that up a little. We do not need an immediate answer, but it would be good to find out what the process is, because many users find it difficult to deal with conflicting reports, or reports that have been withdrawn, for example.
It would be useful to ask the minister how he will feed into the European Commission's work on climate change and how that work will mesh with the Executive's review of its climate change strategy later in the year.
The committee's report on sustainable development was published yesterday and there is clearly an issue about the European Parliament's review of its role in sustainable development, so I will raise that matter. We have quite a concrete agenda to raise with the minister this morning.
Members will note from annex A to the paper that we are no longer directly represented by a Scottish member of the European Parliament on the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety or on the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture. There has been quite a shift in committee membership for Scottish MEPs, so we will have to keep an eye on the feedback that we get from the Scottish Executive European office—we used to have a lot of helpful discussions with, and direct feedback from MEPs, so we will have to refresh our relations with the European office.
If there are no further questions on the paper, we will move on.