European Scrutiny Committee Meeting Summary: 14 January 2015
15 January 2015
European Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday 14 January 2015
Evidence sessions: Home and Justice Secretaries
On 12 January, we took evidence from the Home and Justice Secretaries on a range of issues, including the Government’s handling of the scrutiny process in relation to the UK’s decision to opt-in to 35 criminal justice and policing measures following the decision to opt-out en masse of a number of pre-Lisbon measures in this area.
We also questioned the Secretaries of State on matters such as the Government’s delays in scheduling debates we have recommended (in particular, one on the free movement of EU citizens, which we recommended almost a year ago), and the Government’s Response to our Report on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including the Charter’s applicability to the Temporary Exclusion Orders proposed by the Government in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill.
Further evidence sessions
On 14 January, the Committee held two further oral evidence sessions as part of the follow-up work to our Report on Reforming the Scrutiny System in the House of Commons:
A session with the Minister for Europe and Ivan Rogers, Head of the UK Representation to the EU, on the Government’s Response to our Report. We asked the Minister about our long list of outstanding debate recommendations, and why these are yet to be organised. A further session with the Foreign Secretary will follow on 20 January; and
A session with Rona Fairhead CBE, Chairman of the BBC Trust, and Richard Ayre, Chairman of the BBC Editorial Standards Committee, covering areas arising from our inquiry into the scrutiny system which concern BBC obligations under the Charter, and related issues.
We also considered the following documents:
The EU and the post-2015 development agenda
The Joint Communication “A decent life for all: from vision to collection action” sets out the Commission’s and European External Action Service’s thinking on the post-2015 development agenda — a new set of Sustainable Development Goals to shape global development priorities up until 2030, which are due to be adopted at this September’s UN General Assembly.
The EU will negotiate on behalf of Member States. The Minister says that this approach acknowledges EU competence in development issues, and that the tried-and-tested “team EU approach” — a burden-sharing agreement enabling individual Member States, including the UK, to lead negotiations on certain issues or goal areas — is more likely to secure UK objectives than action alone.
The Council Conclusions, agreed on 17 December 2014, which, in the Minister’s words, “update and set the broad parameters of the EU’s negotiating position”, have strong references to the UK goals on poverty eradication, gender, environmental sustainability, climate change and governance. We recommend that it is now time for this Communication, which we have held under scrutiny since July last year, to be debated in European Committee B,
EU Development Assistance: EuropeAid’s evaluation and results-orientated monitoring systems
EuropeAid is responsible for formulating EU development policy and defining sectoral policies in the field of external aid; drawing up the multiannual programming of external aid instruments together with the European External Action Service; fostering coordination between the EU and the Member States on development cooperation; and externally representing the EU in this field.
The European Court of Auditors’ Special Report
The European Court of Auditors’ Special Report that we considered this week looks in detail at EuropeAid’s Evaluation and Results-Orientated Monitoring systems. These systems are vital for ensuring that the EU taxpayer’s resources are being used effectively in this area.
The Court found that these are not sufficiently reliable, and makes a number of recommendations, which the Commission mostly accepts. But it seems plain to us that the Commission will only make the necessary improvements in the right time frame if it is pressed by the Council.
We therefore recommend this Special Report for debate in European Committee, so that the House can ask the Minister further about why a more determined effort is not being made, and especially why the Council is not putting its weight directly to the wheel and adopting Conclusions on this matter.
Other documents
We are also reporting on documents relating to:
- Energy and Climate Change: Emissions Trading System: market stability reserve;
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: EU zootechnical legislation;
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office: 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
- International Development: The EU approach to resilience;
- Office for National Statistics: Statistics;
- Transport: Inland waterways.
The Committee’s 28th Report of Session 2014-15 will be published soon, covering: Ukraine and Russia: EU restrictive measures; European Semester; Value added taxation; The EU’s Special Representative (EUSR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina; Free movement and public documents; EU training of Malian security forces; Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2014-15; Restrictive measures against Iran: nuclear issues; Forced labour; Repeal of obsolete EU police and criminal justice measures; Food and Agriculture Organisation; Statistics; Seafarers; Financial management: investigations of fraud; Taxation; Financial services: benchmarks; Financial services: occupational pension funds.