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european document; letter; ministerial correspondence; scrutiny; European

EU documents and correspondence

5 February 2014

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The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee examines European Union (EU) documents and related information from the UK Government contained in Explanatory Memoranda (EMs) and correspondence from Ministers.

Documents and Letters

The Government sends EMs and correspondence to the Committee for consideration.  The Committee scrutinises them and reports its conclusions to the House.  Documents which the Committee judges to be politically and/or legally important are the subject of a Report Chapter; others are listed at the back of the Report.

In the head note of each chapter, the Committee cites the European Council number of the document under consideration and the letter or EM that forms the basis of scrutiny. The European Council number takes the following format: 12345/14

Where to find them

Once EMs and letters have been deposited in Parliament, they are considered public documents and can be accessed through the Cabinet Office European Memoranda website.  To search for a record for which you know the Council number choose "search by reference number" and type in the European Council number: 

Other letters

The Committee may choose not to respond to the Government in the form of a report chapter.  It might, instead, choose to write directly to the relevant Minister in which case the letters are published on our website under Ministerial Correspondence.