European and External Relations Committee, 25 Mar 2003
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Official Report
111KB pdf
Legacy Paper
Before we conclude the public part of our meeting, we will discuss our legacy paper on matters that the new committee might investigate. We must also consider reports on food supplements and on our employment inquiry.
The legacy paper will be published following our discussions. I invite members of the committee to comment on the paper in general, without going into detail. We had a discussion about the committee's work load and agreed that we wanted to make public some of the issues that the new committee might discuss. We will do that when we publish the legacy paper, but if members want to record any comments at this point, they may do so.
As someone who was not on the committee at the start, I recognise, from looking at the work that the committee has done over the four years, that the committee has geared up its scrutiny of what is happening in Europe. That is to be welcomed.
The European Committee has not been the most high-profile committee in respect of media coverage, but it has carried out a huge amount of work in broadening the transparency of what is happening in Brussels and in communicating that to the other committees. The recommendations for the future are about how the committee can use its time as effectively as possible. That will be a challenge, given that the new European and External Relations Committee will be able to do so much. I do not envy the new committee the challenge of trying to prioritise.
However we might amend the detail of the report, it provides a good account of the kinds of issues that the committee has had to deal with. People outside the Parliament will find it useful as a sort of route map of the development of the committee. I hope that it will be a way of engaging with the future European and External Relations Committee.
I would like the successor committee to conduct an investigation into the value, or otherwise, of the so-called tartan day. I will not go on about that at length just now. I am in favour of building good relationships between Scotland and the United States of America, but I question whether tartan day is the best way in which to build such relationships. I hope that the successor committee will take that matter up.
I think that we have done some pioneering work, especially the videoconference that we had with the president of the Fisheries Committee of the Galician Parliament. Future committees should take part in such activities more frequently.
Understanding other people, rather than understanding the directives of the European Union, is the way to develop Europe. The quickest and most sensible way for us, as a devolved Parliament, to do that is to interconnect directly with the devolved Parliaments of the other states. The fact that I have seen our papers on the desks of senior political and administration figures in other states is the clearest statement of the effect that we have had beyond these walls. We may be unaware of that or believe that we have had a low profile in this country, but I assure members that our profile in other countries has been far from low.
The most pressing issue for the next committee—aside from dealing with straightforward directive issues such as the food supplements issue—is, without doubt, the constitutional convention. If I have one regret, it is that the committee did not regard that as a priority at an earlier stage. I genuinely believe that we have failed to stay on top of the discussion. We have not had discussions on the issue at every meeting, as we should have done from the moment that the convention began to sit, to keep a clear view of the shifting sands of constitutional politics in the rest of the European Union.
Given some of the exchanges between convention members over the past couple of weeks, it is clear that a change has occurred as a result of the broader political issues in the world and the conflicts that exist within and between European Union states. It is incumbent on the next committee to engage with the development of a constitution for Europe, which will affect all states, irrespective of whether they are member states or have autonomous Governments. The issues will stay with us for ever and will affect the fundamental law of every country and the fundamental rights of every citizen throughout Europe. Without doubt, the convention is the most important issue on the European stage at present.
I have enjoyed my time on the committee enormously and, on behalf of those of us who were on the committee under the previous convener, I thank Hugh Henry, who was a damn good convener—as are you, convener. We had interesting times in the first few months, and I put on record my admiration for the way in which Hugh held the line while he was convener.
Thanks very much, Lloyd. I am sure that Hugh Henry will be touched by those comments.
If not amazed.
I certainly feel that the future of Europe inquiry report is the biggest report that we have produced in the past six months. As convener, I have been involved regularly in meetings outwith the committee to ensure that we continued to advance the viewpoints that the committee report pulled together. We led with Catalonia and Flanders in making a formal submission to the future of Europe convention, and, as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting—before you came in, Lloyd—the President of the European Parliament credited us with leading the way on such issues. That is recognition of the fact that the committee has continued to work in that area.
I thank all members for their comments and contributions. No doubt, the next committee will take them on board and will give them due consideration. I also thank the members of the public who have regularly attended the committee. It has been good to have their support.
Meeting continued in private until 17:00.