European Committee, 28 Sep 1999

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Official Report 224KB pdf

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Convener's Report

I have received an invitation, as the convener of the committee, to attend the opening of Scotland House in Brussels and to participate in a workshop during that visit to act as a rapporteur. The Parliamentary Bureau has approved that, but it is a matter of courtesy to keep the committee informed that I have received the invitation.

Who is arranging the Scotland week in Brussels?

I think the Scottish Executive is. It has issued a number of invitations.

It is not Scotland Europa, then?

No. I have no idea who has organised it. All I am telling the committee is that I received that invitation.

We have a request that members of the committee meet a delegation from the Swedish Parliament. A number of invitations like that are starting to come in. It is important that delegates from other Parliaments realise that there is a difference between the Executive and the Parliament, so I hope that the committee, on behalf of the Parliament, can meet those delegations.

The Swedish group will be in Edinburgh on 16 November and we have been asked to host a reception for it at 6.30 pm that day. The Presiding Officer hopes to be in attendance and we need to know if members of the committee will be available.

It might be useful to have members of other Parliaments come and tell us about their experience of setting up a European committee. We are on a learning curve and a presentation on good practice would be helpful.

I would be reluctant to arrange additional meetings just to accommodate that, to be honest.

I have already had a request from delegates from the Basque Parliament who will be in Edinburgh next Tuesday. I considered inviting them to a committee meeting, but that proved not to be possible. Where it is practical, though, it would be useful to have representatives from other Parliaments with us. You are right, Irene.

Are members available at 6.30 on 16 November?

What day is that?

It is a Tuesday. Could you check your diaries and let the committee clerk know as soon as possible, please?

Is anyone available next Tuesday to meet representatives from the Basque Parliament?

Gora!

Yes.

Yes.

The meeting will be in the morning.

In that case, I will not be available.

So, it will be Margo and Winnie. We will try to arrange something, depending on what the Basque delegation's diaries are like. We have also been asked by the Parliamentary Bureau to decide whether we want to meet on Monday afternoons.

No.

I took the liberty of mentioning it, but I did not think that anyone would want to.

Where did the suggestion come from? Is it part of comrade McCabe's overreaction to the false allegations in certain parts of the media that members are hanging around on Mondays, doing nothing? Most of us have a lot of constituency work to do on Mondays. If the committee met on a Monday afternoon, I honestly believe that the service that I offer to my constituents could suffer.

The suggestion was made due to problems that the staff are having accommodating all the committee meetings. Some committees are meeting much more frequently than was anticipated, which is starting to cause a logjam. Staff are considering ways to accommodate committee meetings as well as the Parliament's increased work load. It was always expected that Mondays could be available for committees if we so desired. I have already said that I do not think that members are interested in that suggestion.

The conveners meeting also discussed ways to cope with the increased work load without causing problems on Mondays and Fridays. People are aware of members' significant constituency work load. We will say no to the suggestion.