Convener's Report
We can now move on to the next agenda item, which is the convener's report, under which there are five items to report. As on previous occasions, there is a monthly report on the Parliament's external liaison activities. If members have had a chance to read it, we can note the contents of that paper. As ever, we thank the Parliament's clerk and chief executive and the external liaison unit for all their work over the past month or so. As we can see, the Parliament still regularly receives many visitors from other countries—a lot of work is involved in that.
It might be helpful if we knew which members were attending which outgoing delegations. Could we ask the external relations unit to include that information in its regular reports?
That is a fair point. We can do that. It would probably be quite helpful.
The second item in the convener's report is the situation regarding expenditure of European structural funds in Scotland. As part of the current expenditure round, the European Union has introduced a decommitment rule—better known as N+2—which means in simple terms that moneys that are not spent within two years following the year in which they were programmed to be spent must be returned to the EU.
As the committee can see, there is a response from the Executive, which outlines the current situation with regard to the various programmes in Scotland, and which indicates that they are all attempting to get their spending programmes in place by the required time so that they do not have to pay cash back to the EU. The issue is important, because millions of pounds are at stake if they do not get their programmes in place. For instance, on the east of Scotland, the response states:
"there remains a risk that the Programme spend will fall short of the N+2 target".
Similar statements are made about a number of other areas.
I suggest that we welcome the efforts that are being made to spend the money and to ensure that Scotland gets the European funding to which it is entitled. I also suggest that we ensure that the Executive gives us regular updates on the issues.
I note that the West of Scotland European Consortium, which has made a submission on structural funds, seems to be having some difficulty and that there is a question mark over whether all the money will be spent in the west of Scotland. It might be worth while bearing that in mind when those who are coming to the committee to discuss structural funding are selected. We might be able to benefit from WOSEC's experiences.
I support that. We will have a good opportunity to raise the issue when the ministers and the local authorities are before us. Perhaps not many people know about it, but millions of pounds are clearly at stake for the Scottish economy.
The next item in the convener's report is publication of the European Commission's legislative work programme for 2004, which has been sent to committee members. It seems to be quite a light programme, because the Commission will be busy with enlargement and the EU constitution in 2004. The paper is perhaps a bit lighter than in previous years. I suggest that we ask the Scottish Parliament information centre and the clerks to draw any interesting issues out of the programme and to bring them to the committee's attention. Do we want to seek a parliamentary debate on the matter during Executive time? We have previously discussed the idea that we should encourage the Executive to have a debate on the matter in the chamber every time the Commission publishes its work programme, in order to ensure that all MSPs are aware of what is happening in Europe. Are members happy with that?
Members indicated agreement.
We will ensure that we send the Commission's work programme to the other committees as well, because it will contain a lot of items that are relevant to their agendas.
The fourth item in the convener's report concerns the various trade and cultural missions that ministers undertake. We wrote to the Executive in October on the subject after the committee raised it. Committee members can see in their papers the response from the Executive. Are there any comments on that response?
The last delegation that went to Catalonia included the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Frank McAveety, but there was an oversight: the Executive did not include as part of its delegation or in the expositions in which it was involved any representatives of the Gaelic language, Gaelic literature, the Gaelic economy or any Gaelic artists. With John Farquhar Munro, I met Frank McAveety, who has now agreed to use the offices of Donald MacInnes at Scotland Europa to advise the Executive as to how to involve the Gaelic Arts Agency, for example, in any such tours. The agency has done great work with the British Council in Barcelona and other cities.
It is worth emphasising that issue, and I would be much obliged if we could do that through you, convener.
That is a good suggestion, which I support. It is also something that we can build into our inquiry about promoting Scotland overseas, which will give Alasdair Morrison an opportunity to bring the subject back on to our agenda.
If there are no more comments on that item, I move on to the final item in my convener's report, which is the First Minister's role in the conference of presidents of regions with legislative powers in Europe—Regleg. As we all know, the First Minister took over the role of president of Regleg about a week ago. I have dropped an informal letter to him asking whether he will at some point update the committee on what his role entails. I suggest that the committee might want to consider the matter again. The presidency of Regleg is a high-profile post and I know that the committee will want to welcome the First Minister's having that post.
For my information, does he have the post for three months, a year or what?
It is an annual post, as far as I am aware—he will hold it for a year.
In that case, we would certainly want to know what he intends to do.
He is the first president of Regleg, is he not? It is newly set up, so his presidency represents an opportunity.
It would be helpful if the First Minister came to the committee at some point and outlined what he intends to do and the background to it. I am happy to convey that request to him.
Members indicated agreement.