European and External Relations Committee, 25 Oct 2005

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Official Report 160KB pdf

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Pre and Post-council Scrutiny

The next item on our agenda is the one that everybody laughs at—the scrutiny of the Council of the European Union agendas and the reports back.

I am glad that the agriculture and fisheries council has eventually submitted its report. I wanted to raise a point to do with pre-council scrutiny that will probably come up in other documents. I do not know what John Home Robertson's feelings are, but we know that we are coming to the time of year—November and December—when total allowable catches are considered, among other things. The reports that we are hearing are not exactly encouraging for the Scottish fishing industry. Somewhere hidden in among our papers was an indication that there had been a delay in some of the scientific evidence because of a lack of staff. I cannot remember quite how it tied in, but I think that the information was in the sift papers.

The committee should write to the minister responsible for agriculture and fisheries to ask about the baseline on which the Scottish Executive will approach the meeting. I saw a small snippet from Ross Finnie in one of the newspapers—The Scotsman perhaps—but the issue has not been given huge coverage because he disagrees with the idea of there being a total ban on cod catches and a 40 per cent reduction in haddock catches. There are arguments about the Shetland box among the papers as well, which will interest Jim Wallace.

The committee should write and ask what the Executive's stance will be in preparation for the council. That is the only thing that we can do.

I think that you will have seen the information among the sift papers—information on the Shetland box and the plaice box, if I remember correctly. Is everyone happy with Margaret Ewing's suggestion, although it is slightly out of sync with what is on the agenda?

If there is nothing else on the agendas and reports, are members happy with the recommendations that have been made, which are basically all to thank the Scottish Executive for the information?

Members indicated agreement.