European Scrutiny Committee Meeting Summary: 21 January 2015
22 January 2015
European Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday 14 January 2015
The Committee considered the following documents:
Subsidiarity and Proportionality and the Commission’s relations with national Parliaments
Last October, we recommended the Commission’s Reports on Subsidiarity and Proportionality and on its relations with national parliaments for debate on the floor of the House, in view of the fundamental importance of the role of national parliaments in scrutinising EU legislation and in providing democratic legitimacy for the EU. The Government now informs us that this debate will take place in European Committee B. We find this extremely disappointing, and consider that it breaches the Government’s commitment, as set out in the Minister for Europe’s Written Ministerial Statement of 20 January 2011, to “strengthening its engagement with Parliament on all European Union Business as part of our wider work to reduce the democratic deficit in the EU.”
Restrictive measures against Syria
We also consider proposals which would re-impose travel restrictions and asset freezes against three individuals associated with the Assad Regime in Syria, and one entity. The original restrictions were annulled by the General Court, and this new listing is based on a new statement of reasons. We support the principle that restrictive measures should be both targeted and legally robust, but it is not evident that this is the case with these proposals, particularly given the background, which includes the Council being unable to provide sufficient supporting evidence for the original restrictions using open sources when invited to do so in court hearings last June. The Minister for Europe only indicates that these proposals are based on new grounds supported by information taken from open sources, and that they comply with fundamental rights. We clear these proposals so that they can be adopted but ask the Minister to confirm that he considers the reasons now given for the restrictive measures, and the underlying evidence, to be sufficiently robust to deter or withstand further legal challenge. Some similar issues are raised by the restrictive measures against Iran which we are also reporting on this week.
Investment plan for Europe
In November 2014 the Commission published a Communication which sets out a plan for promoting investment within the EU economy. The plan has three strands: a European Fund for Strategic Investments, to mobilise €315 billion (£245 billion) for investment; a pipeline of investment projects and an investment advisory "Hub"; and a wider package of reforms to improve the investment climate. The Government is fairly positive about the plan, and the Minister now provides an update on the December European Council meeting, where the ideas contained in the plan were discussed. However he does not provide us with some specific information that we requested when we last considered this Communication in December, including on what financial consequences there might be for the UK arising from EU budgetary involvement in the plan. We may well wish to recommend that this document be debated, but we postpone this decision until we have seen a copy of the related draft Regulation on the proposed European Funds for Strategic Investments.
Scrutiny of the UK’s 2014 block opt-out decision
Following an evidence session, on 12 January 2015, with the Home and Justice Secretaries on the Government’s overall handling of the 2014 block opt-out process, and the failure to meet its Parliamentary scrutiny obligations in relation to the 35 EU police and criminal justice measures which the UK has re-joined, we now clear from scrutiny the Government’s Explanatory Memoranda on the measures subject to the block opt-out. These were submitted to Parliament in July 2013 and were reproduced in Command Paper 8671, published in the same month. The Explanatory Memoranda provided the basis for the Committee’s detailed analysis of each measure subject to the block opt-out in its November 2013 Report, The UK’s block opt-out of pre-Lisbon criminal law and policing measures. The Committee published a follow-up Report in November 2014 and has reported on the three Council Decisions and a Commission Decision, adopted on, or shortly before, 1 December 2014 which were required to authorise the UK to opt back into 35 measures. The Government overrode the Committee’s scrutiny reserve on two of these measures. The evidence session represented the culmination of a lengthy and highly unsatisfactory process of scrutiny, and the Home and Justice Secretaries were left in no doubt as to the dissatisfaction of this Committee, the Home Affairs and Justice Select Committees, and the EU Committee in the House of Lords, with the Government’s handling of the process.
Other documents
We are also reporting on documents relating to:
- Business, Innovation and Skills: Shareholder rights;
- Culture, Media and Sport: The Telecommunications Single Market;
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office: EU restrictive measures against Côte d’lvoire; EU restrictive measures against Tunisia; International Code of Conduct on Outer Space Activities; Restrictive measures against Iran: nuclear issues;
- International Development: EU Development Assistance;
- Ministry of Justice: EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights;
- Transport: Road safety; Working time: inland waterway transport; Rail research and innovation.
The Committee’s 29th Report of Session 2014-15 will be published soon, covering: The EU and the post-2015 development agenda; EU Development Assistance: EuropeAid’s evaluation and results-orientated monitoring systems Emissions Trading System: market stability reserve; EU zootechnical legislation; EU relations with Fiji; Rules of procedure of the General Court; EU Military Advisory Mission in the Central African Republic; EU Turkmenistan relations; EU External Action: the Instrument for Stability; European security and defence: following up the December 2013 European Defence Council; The EU approach to resilience; Statistics; Inland waterways.