European Committee, 31 Aug 1999

Meeting date: Tuesday, August 31, 1999

Official Report 247KB pdf

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Further Briefing

One issue that was raised with the Presiding Officer at the meeting of conveners was a concern that the clerks to the committees were being asked to produce policy papers, which to some extent is beyond their remit. There were also work load implications.

I have found the clerks of this committee very co-operative in producing a number of documents at short notice, and I do not want to abuse their willingness to help. Nevertheless, there will be issues on which we want background information, and we should consider whether it can be obtained from elsewhere, because there may be a time when we will be advised that we must be more careful about the requests that are made. Is there anything that we need or would like for the next meeting?

The Amsterdam Treaty brief is useful, but the treaty heralds a big change in Europe and I would not mind a further explanation of how it dictates to some of the issues that we may be considering. Previously, I brought up how the priorities in the Highlands and Islands are partly defined by the way the Amsterdam Treaty looks at the future.

Would it be helpful to have someone lead a discussion on that, or would you rather have the information in a document?

I would not mind someone coming from the European Commission or from the offices that it has here.

We will look into that. As well as the document, we may have someone to take us through it and prompt some discussion on the treaty. Is there anything else?

I mentioned previously the INTERREG programme. Will the briefing on that programme be available for the next meeting? I appreciate the clerks' work load, but it would be helpful to have that information, given the timetabling of the programme.

The briefing is currently on my computer screen upstairs, and if I were not working here I would be working on that. I will endeavour to get the briefing to the committee before the next meeting.

You mean that you do not get 17 weeks' holiday? We will need to see about that.

Is there anything else?

Following an experience that I had, it might be appropriate to issue a reverse briefing to our Westminster colleagues, because a Westminster member I spoke to felt that it was inappropriate that as a member of the Scottish Parliament I should be dealing with European matters, as he understood European matters to be reserved. This is the area in which we will need to work most closely with our Westminster colleagues. It might be appropriate for us to set out that we want to do that in a positive way.

Who are these Westminster colleagues?

We had a discussion about how in Europe people were accustomed to the complexities of political relationships and I think that it is something that we may have to get accustomed to.

I will rely on Mr Mundell's good services to persuade his colleague of how wrong he is.

The European answer is subsidiarity.

We will break for five or 10 minutes, depending on when the minister arrives.

Before we break, can I give my apologies for having to leave.

Meeting suspended.

On resuming—