European Scrutiny Committee Meeting Summary: 19 November 2014
19 November 2014
The European Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday 19 November 2014
The Committee considered the following documents:
The European Police College
The European Police College (CEPOL) is an EU Agency based in Budapest responsible for providing training and learning opportunities for senior police officers on the European dimension of policing. This week we revisit a draft Regulation which would establish a new legal base for CEPOL, align its structure and governance with the principles set out in the Common Approach on EU decentralised Agencies agreed by the Commission, Council and European Parliament in July 2012, and enable it to implement a new training approach. This approach would be based on a proposal contained in a Commission Communication, also before us this week, for a comprehensive European Law Enforcement Training Scheme ("LETS"). The draft Regulation is subject to the UK’s Title V opt-in, and the deadline for the Government to notify the Council Presidency of its opt-in decision is 24 November. In September, we recommended that an opt-in debate be held before the Government notifies the Council of its decision, but this has not yet been scheduled. The Minister does not provide an explanation for the delay, or an apology. We take the opportunity to remind the Minister that opt-in debates are time-critical and we consider that it is would be unacceptable for the Government to establish its position without an opt-in debate taking place. The Government still has time to schedule the debate for before 24 November and we expect it to do so.
Trafficking in human beings
This Commission Communication reports on Member States’ implementation of a 2004 Directive which is intended to encourage victims of human trafficking to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. It is accompanied by a Commission staff working document containing a mid-term review of progress made in implementing the EU’s anti-human trafficking Strategy for 2012-16 which we describe in some detail in our Report. The UK does not participate in the 2004 Directive, but has opted into a 2011 Directive establishing a broader EU-wide framework to tackle human trafficking. The Commission will publish a report in the early part of 2015 on Member States’ implementation of the 2011 Directive. We expect the Government’s Explanatory Memorandum on that report to provide a more detailed assessment of the "added value" of EU action in tackling human trafficking and the progress made to date across the EU. In the meantime, we clear this document from scrutiny.
Fisheries: catch quotas and effort limitation for 2015
We consider a draft Regulation which sets Total Allowable Catches (TAC) for particular fish stocks in 2015. TACs need to be agreed by the Council before the start of the calendar year to which they apply and must also take account of scientific advice; this has meant that official texts have, in previous years, become available too late to be properly scrutinised. The draft Regulation includes proposed TACs on a significant number of stocks, but not in relation to those jointly managed with Norway, a number of which are of particular importance to the UK. On the basis of past experience, it seems unlikely that the latter will become available much before the Fisheries Council on 15-16 December, where they are expected to be agreed. However, if the Government — as it has in recent years — holds a general debate on fisheries before this Council, we would be prepared to grant a scrutiny waiver to allow it to vote on the proposals.
Other documents
We are also reporting on documents relating to:
- Business, Innovation and Skills: Global Navigation Satellite System;
- Culture, Media and Sport: The Telecommunications Single Market
- Energy and Climate Change: Progress towards the Internal Energy Market
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Discard plans for small pelagic and industrial fisheries;
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Member States’ application of EU Law in 2013; Common Security and Defence Policy: EULEX Kosovo: allegations of corruption; The EU and the Horn of Africa; ESDP: Piracy off the coast of Somalia: Operation ATALANTA;
- Home Office: Forced Labour;
- International Development: European Development Fund: forecast expenditure; EU support for rehabilitation following the earthquake in Haiti; Economic Partnership Agreement with the West African region; EU development Assistance;
- Justice: Access to documents; European Small Claims Procedure;
- Transport: Single European Sky;
- Treasury: Financial services: insurance mediation; Financial services: securities financing transactions;
- Work and Pensions: Trans-boundary effects of industrial pollution
The Committee’s 18th Report of Session 2014-15 was published on 19 November, covering: European Defence: implementation road map; Financing European Union operations having military or defence implications; Resilience of the European gas system to supply disruption in 2014-15; International Organisations for Vine and Wine; EU restrictive measures against the Syrian regime; EU Action to support Afghan civilian policing and Rule of Law post-2014; EU Strategy in Afghanistan 2014-16; The working of the comitology committees; The EU and the Horn of Africa: Regional Maritime Capacity Building; Hague Convention (Choice of Court Agreements); Financial services: securities financing transactions; EU Solidarity Fund; EU General Budgets 2014 and 2015.