European and External Relations Committee, 18 Sep 2007

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Official Report 263KB pdf

---

“Report on an inquiry into the scrutiny of European Legislation” (Government Response)

Item 2 is correspondence from the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture. We will consider the Scottish Government's response to the report of the previous European and External Relations Committee on its inquiry into the scrutiny of European legislation and the previous Scottish Executive's last transposition and implementation report. Members will note from paper EU/S2/07/4/1 that, in previous sessions, the European and External Relations Committee regularly considered such reports, which detail the progress of European legislation during the transposition and implementation process in Scotland. Would members like to comment on the documents?

Paragraphs 75 and 76 of the Executive's response refer to an internal review. The Executive states that, once the review has concluded, it will be in a better position to advise us on the two recommendations concerned. It would be helpful for us to seek an indication from the Executive of the timescale for the review and of whether it will report back to the committee once the review is complete.

I suggest that we raise the issue with the minister under the next item.

Following our visit last week, we should consider whether to seek observer status at the Committee of Permanent Representatives. The briefing that we received made clear that many decisions are made and many negotiations take place in that committee. What is the Government's position on the issue?

Scotland has 11 people at its Brussels office. It struck me that we have an extremely high-calibre team, led by Michael Aron, but he and others mentioned that some other devolved Administrations have as many as 50 people in their offices. We should review whether the Scottish office in Brussels has sufficient manpower resources. That is no reflection on the ability of the current team, which is first class. However, if other Administrations have as many as 50 staff, we may need to look at how the office is resourced.

I have always believed that size is not everything, but we will put that point to the minister in due course. I am sure that members will raise with her any matters that they wish to pursue. Does the committee agree to the recommendations in the paper?

Members indicated agreement.

Excellent. I am glad that there is unanimous agreement on that point.