Meeting Summary: 11 June

The Committee took oral evidence from Lord Livingston of Parkhead, the Minister of State for Trade and Investment at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, on the ongoing EU-US negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The transcript will soon be available on our website.

The Committee considered the following documents:

European Semester

The European Semester is an EU-level framework for coordinating and assessing Member States’ structural reforms and fiscal/budgetary policy and for monitoring and addressing macroeconomic imbalances. As we reported in December 2013, the Semester cycle begins with the Annual Growth Survey. It is then followed by a series of country specific documents and Commission Communication on building growth across the EU on which we now report and which will be examined by the June European Council. The Committee recommended that a debate on the earlier package of documents take place prior to the March European Council to allow Members to discuss the emerging conclusions and direction of the introductory stage of the cycle, to be followed by a later, more detailed debate on the country specific recommendations, including that for the UK.  The Government ignored our recommendation, leaving us with no option but to refer all the documents for one debate, to take place prior to the culmination of the cycle in the June European Council. We now recommend for debate the Council Recommendations and Opinions on the Member States’ national reform programmes and on their stability or convergence programmes and further suggest that the debate might explore the direction of EU economic and fiscal policies and the utility of the Semester process.

Regulation of new psychoactive substances

The Committee continued scrutiny on this draft Directive and Regulation. The draft Regulation would establish a new framework for EU-wide regulation of new psychoactive substances which present moderate or severe health, social and safety risks, whilst providing for the free circulation of those which present low, or no, risks; the draft Directive is the instrument through which Member States would implement criminal sanctions for the highest risk substances. Last week the Committee considered the European Commission’s response to the House of Commons Reasoned Opinion – a formal statement that, in the view of the House, the proposal does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity on the grounds that the action proposed would unnecessarily fetter Member States’ ability to act unilaterally for public health reasons.  The Committee also has concerns about the legal base for EU action and has questioned the Government’s position on the application of the UK’s Schengen “opt-out” or Title V “opt-in” Protocols.  We now report that the Government has not so far succeeded in obtaining a legal opinion from the Council Legal Service on the correct legal base for the draft Regulation, but urge it to continue in its efforts to secure one.  We seek further information on the amendments to the draft Regulation proposed by the European Parliament which, in the Minister’s words, are “helpful but not sufficient to mitigate our concerns” and await further updates on the negotiations. 

The EU and Georgia: the EU and Moldova

The Committee referred these four Draft Decisions on Association Agreements between the EU and Georgia and the EU and Moldova for debate in light of developments following a similar Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, and because they raised similar legal issues to those raised in that earlier Agreement. The debate took place on Monday 9 June.  We now report on further information from the Minister concerning those areas of the Agreements where the Member States are exercising their competence and those where the EU is exercising its competence.  The Minister agrees with the Committee that the EU should not seek to apply provisionally any elements that are exclusive Member State competences; we therefore ask the Minister to confirm that that the EU will not do so. We reiterate our view that, in the absence of a Title V legal base, the UK’s opt-in does not apply despite the Government’s assertions that it will opt into the proposals; now reinforced by the judgment given today by the Court of Justice in case C-377/12. We also comment on the timing of the debate: though the Agreements are not due to be adopted until 23 June, arranging the debate on 9 June unnecessarily prevented the Committee reporting on the Minister’s letters of 2 and 4 June in advance of the debate, thereby undermining the scrutiny process.

Other documents reported

We are also reporting on documents relating to:

• Business, Innovation and Skills: Competition Policy 2013;
• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Driftnet fishing;
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office: The EU’s Special Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina; EU Special Representative in Afghanistan; A European Union maritime security strategy; The EU and Central African Republic;
• Health: Effective, accessible and resilient health systems;
• M Treasury: Financial services: bank accounts; Financial services: credit rating agencies; Financial services: securities financing transactions and resilience of credit institutions; EU Budget: the UK correction; Financial services: long term investment funds; Money laundering and terrorist financing;
• Home Office: Establishing the EU’s position within the International Labour Organisation;

The Committee’s First Report of Session 2013-14 will soon been published, covering: Ukraine and Russia: EU restrictive measures; Animal cloning; Reforming Europol; Financial services: occupational pension funds; Network Information Scrutiny across the EU; Shareholder rights; Single-member private limited liability companies; Access to published works for the visually impaired; Telecommunications Single Market; Internet Governance; Radio Spectrum Policy Programme; Tourism; EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace process and wider EUSR issues; EU Special Representative for Human Rights; Citizens’ dialogues; EU and the Horn of Africa; Regulation of medical devices; Regulation of new psychoactive substances; Customs; Long-term financing, including crowdfunding; Financial management; EU return policy; Protecting the Euro against counterfeiting – the Pericles 202 programme; Task Force for the Mediterranean; Hague Convention (Choice of Court Agreements); EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; Application of the Brussels IIa Regulation; Maritime Cabotage; Aviation: remotely piloted aircraft systems; Road haulage; Civil aviation: EU and Ukraine; Road safety: eCall.