European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Official Report 347KB pdf

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European Chairs—UK (Meeting)

Under item 4, I will give a wee report on the European chairs—UK meeting that was held in the Parliament a week ago Monday. Bill Cash missed his flight, so we had him on the speakerphone, which worked relatively well. Representatives from Wales, Ireland and the House of Lords all came along. The meeting was positive and specific questions were asked. Issues that we targeted included the euro zone crisis, the direction of travel—Bill Cash suggested that we deal with that—the multi-annual financial framework and the Commission’s work programme.

There was an interesting discussion, which links to the question that Annabelle Ewing just asked, about opt-ins, opt-outs, the European Court of Justice and how all that will impact on the future of Europe. We are well aware of what is going on. All the UK Assemblies’ Europe committees are undertaking similar inquiries in relation to the euro zone crisis. We shared a lot of common ground, knowledge and intelligence on that across the table.

I had been given the impression that the Scottish contingent might get a bit of a hard time because of the referendum, but the attitude from every other country around the table was positive and respectful. People were interested in what independence would mean for them and for relationships. We left the meeting with the realisation that we would probably be in a much stronger and more equal position. Whether or not the other countries agree with Scotland having its independence, they certainly investigated the issue.

I would describe the attitude by the end of the meeting as convivial. Bill Cash was like a voice from God, and he made his points in a constructive and respectful manner. I had felt that I might be put under attack, but I was not. The meeting was helpful.

The other Europe committees are continuing their inquiries, which mirror ours. We have agreed to take a more joined-up attitude to how we communicate with one another. The European chairs meeting happens only once a year, in general, but we gained such a lot from the meeting that we thought we might meet more often. We might not all go to places; we might use videoconferencing or telephone conferences—or perhaps even a webinar, Jamie.

That is a good idea.

Because things are moving quickly, more meetings might be worth while. I was invited to meet the other chairs in London.

Will you need a passport for that?

I will not need a passport. You have been reading the Daily Record again.

The experience was positive. I look forward to repeating it and to not having to host the meeting, which was a bit nerve-wracking.

I agree that you should have more regular meetings, which are important. However, I do not agree with phone meetings. Meeting one to one is essential. Networking is becoming more and more important for us in Scotland, and a presence is important. Such meetings need to be a physical get-together rather than just communicating with people.

Because of its historical position, Scotland really needs to do a proper selling job and not just something on the phone, which might even be discourteous at the level that we are discussing. I suggest that meetings should take place in person.

We will not dispense with face-to-face meetings but, in interim periods, we might use videoconferencing or have telephone meetings. If people are in Scotland or I am in London for something else, we could tie up with that.

At the meeting, we discussed mainstreaming European affairs—the National Assembly for Wales is also doing that. I explained our rapporteur system, in which there was a lot of interest. Northern Ireland and Wales gave a lot of input on the impact of subsidiarity. We will carry that over for discussion.

We will not dispense with face-to-face meetings, but we might have more meetings in intervening periods, given that things are changing quickly.

We are the new kid on the block, so we have to market ourselves a lot more than others do—hence the point that I made.

It sounds as though the exercise was useful. What other Parliaments are doing on the EU front is always of interest. The EU is a vast subject to cover and it is always interesting to see how other legislatures approach it. You are participating in a useful forum for gathering intelligence and explaining what we are doing, convener.

We agreed at the beginning of the meeting to take items 5 and 6 in private, so I close the public part of the meeting and thank the public for coming along.

16:06 Meeting continued in private until 16:34.