Meeting summary: Wednesday 25 June 2014
25 June 2014
The European Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
The Committee considered the following documents:
EU enlargement: Albania
As part of the October 2013 progress report on the “enlargement package”, the European Commission recommended that Albania be granted accession candidate status. The December 2013 General Affairs Council (GAC) concluded that it would examine, on the basis of a further Commission report, “continued implementation of anti-corruption and judicial reform strategies and of recently adopted relevant legislation as well as a continued trend of pro-active investigations and prosecutions, including in the area of organised crime; and in the light of that, and “on the understanding that Albania builds on the encouraging progress made so far”, looked forward to a decision regarding granting candidate status to Albania in June 2014, subject to endorsement by the European Council.
In January, the Committee made its position clear: before any further consideration by the June 2014 European Council, to grant such status to Albania, the Committee expected an “unqualified statement of the Government’s positions before the event, so that we can scrutinise it”. At the very least we expected the Government to provide an assessment of whether it felt that the Commission’s findings in its report on Albania’s progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime in judicial reform constituted sufficient evidence of “sustained and concrete” delivery”. The Minister for Europe has now written to the Committee, too late for the information to be reported to the House prior to the relevant GAC, to say that the final decision would be taken before the Council but “requires consultation across multiple departments, which is now in progress”. The Committee regards this as unacceptable, as it prevents the House from conducting any meaningful scrutiny of a highly controversial matter. We have therefore invited the Minister to give evidence to the Committee on this, and other, matters. We expect a clear explanation before then of the position the Government took at the GAC and its reasons for so doing.
European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)
The Committee reports on the State of Play/Orientation Debate on the Draft Regulation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The original proposal for an EPPO, published in July 2013, remains under scrutiny by the Committee and was the subject of a Reasoned Opinion in October 2013 which, along with those submitted by other Member States, reached the yellow card subsidiarity threshold that requires the Commission to reconsider its proposal. The latest text under scrutiny is a partial alternative to the Commission’s original text and represents an effort on the part of the Presidency of the Council to exhaust all attempts at achieving the unanimity required in Council to proceed with the proposal. We commend the Minister for her comprehensive Explanatory Memorandum which sets out clearly the amendments to the text, including the move to a new collegiate model for the EPPO. However, given the Coalition commitment not to participate in an EPPO in any format, our main concerns relate to the impact on non-participating states, as well as to the potential impact on the operation of Eurojust and OLAF, in which the UK does participate. We continue to hold the proposal under scrutiny and wait to hear from the Minister on further significant developments, particularly as they relate to the concerns set out above.
Other documents reported
We are also reporting on documents relating to:
- Business, Innovation and Skills: Raw materials initiative; Company restructuring;
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office: EU-Lebanon relations; EU-Tunisia relations; EU Special Representatives for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia; European Neighbourhood Policy; European Union Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories; EU restrictive measures against Côte d’Ivoire;
- HM Treasury: EU General Budget 2014;
- Home Office: Task Force for the Mediterranean; Asylum and Immigration.
The Committee’s Third Report will be published on 1 July, covering: Strategic guidelines for EU Justice and Home Affairs to 2020; Reform of the EU’s Staff Regulations; High-speed electronic communication networks; Undeclared work; The EU Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point; EU Special Representative to Kosovo; EU Strategy in Afghanistan; The EU and Ukraine; Organ donation and transplantation; Stability and Growth Pact and European Semester; 2011 and 2012 salary and pension adjustments for EU staff; The development of the second generation Schengen Information System; the private sector and inclusive and sustainable growth; Carbon dioxide emissions.