European and External Relations Committee, 28 Mar 2006
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Official Report
198KB pdf
Sift
Item 4 is the sift of European Community and European Union documents and draft legislation. The first item is a Commission communication that sets out a more developed version of the proposal for a European institute of technology following a public consultation. The committee took a particular interest in the matter early on and brought it to the Parliament's attention. I commend the communication to members of this and the other committees that are listed in the sift paper.
Secondly, we have the Commission's energy green paper, which I mentioned in our discussion on our work programme. I suggest that we refer it to the three committees that are listed in the sift paper.
The third item is a Commission communication on improving the economic situation of the fishing industry. That is appropriate, given that we have just considered a petition on fishing. The document gives an analysis of the sector's economic difficulties and suggests ways of addressing the challenges. I suggest that we bring the paper to the attention of the Environment and Rural Development Committee.
The fourth and fifth items are for our interest. They have been mentioned before, particularly by Irene Oldfather. The fourth item is a proposal that money be spent from the EU solidarity fund following applications for assistance from Bulgaria, Romania and Austria after floods last year. That is a good example of what the solidarity fund is used for. The fifth and final item is a proposal for a regulation to establish a European globalisation adjustment fund with an impact assessment and rationale for intervention. We recorded an interest in that because Irene Oldfather mentioned the matter when she reported back from the Committee of the Regions, which discussed it in some depth. I imagine that the committee will want to maintain an interest in it.
Does the committee agree to refer the documents to the committees that are listed in the sift document?
Members indicated agreement.
What are we going to do with the fourth and fifth items? Given our previous discussions, where do the solidarity fund and the proposed globalisation adjustment fund fit into our work programme?
The committee keeps a watching brief on things in which it has expressed an interest. The funds are part of the European Commission's programme, part of the Executive's programme and part of the general things that are going on. I think our discussion arose from a report back from the Committee of the Regions.
I certainly reported back from the Committee of the Regions on structural funds. The Committee of the Regions supported the recommendation that a globalisation adjustment fund be established. The matter has been on and off the agenda several times in the past few years, but regions and Parliaments throughout Europe welcome the fact that it is back on the agenda. It will deal with situations such as those that we have faced in Scotland when there have been massive redundancies and 500, 600 or 700 workers have been put out of work overnight. The fund will deal with asymmetric shocks to regional economies.
The idea was that, rather than the Council of Ministers sitting until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning trying to deal with a situation and to work out where money might become available in the European Union, a fund would be set up. That is the principle behind the globalisation adjustment fund, but we will get more detail as the papers come in. To date, we have discussed the principles, but we have not decided on the criteria and so on. When further information comes into the public domain, that will be helpful.
That will add to our understanding of why such things are set up initially.