European Scrutiny Committee Meeting Summary: 28 January 2015
30 January 2015
European Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday 28 January 2015
The Committee considered the following documents:
Committee correspondence with Lord Hall
Last January, we invited Lord Hall, Director-General of the BBC, to appear before us to give evidence as part of the follow-up work to our Report on Reforming the European Scrutiny System in the House of Commons, which included consideration of the media visibility of scrutiny and which was based on evidence taken from senior BBC managers. Lord Hall has repeatedly declined to appear before us, but has this week confirmed that he will do so on 11 March 2015. We decide this week to publish the correspondence between us and Lord Hall, and successive Chairmen of the BBC Trust, about our requests for them to appear before us. This decision was taken in order to fully explain the situation and to place the matter in the public domain. Rona Fairhead, Chairman of the BBC Trust, appeared before us on 14 January.
The Commission Work Programme 2015
This week we consider the Commission’s Work Programme (CWP) for 2015, which sets out the Commission’s priorities for 2015. In comparison to last year, the Commission proposes fewer new initiatives, more modifications and withdrawals of existing proposals, and more actions under its Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme. The Government welcomes this, and the Commission’s focus on a number of areas such as jobs, growth and investment and energy and climate change policy. Nine Select Committee Chairs have also provided us with their committees’ views on which of the proposals contained within the CWP are the most important, and we annex these responses in full to our chapter. As is our usual practice, we recommend this document for debate on the floor of the House, given its wide-ranging nature and the significant degree of interest across the House. This debate should take place as soon as possible, to allow Members to have an early say on the Commission’s proposals for 2015.
Unaccompanied minors seeking asylum
We consider a draft Regulation which would amend the Dublin Regulation to clarify the rules determining which Member State is responsible for examining an asylum application made by an unaccompanied minor who has no other family members in the EU. The proposal is subject to the UK’s Title V (justice and home affairs) opt-in, and the deadline for notification of the UK’s opt-in decision expired on 16 October 2014. The Minister now confirms that the UK has opted-in to the draft Regulation. He does not apologise for, or even acknowledge, the delay in notifying Parliament of the Government’s decision. We ask him to provide an urgent and detailed explanation of the reasons for the delay, failing which we shall expect him to appear before us and explain in person. We also ask the Minister whether he will be seeking further amendment of the text to ensure that both the rights of an unaccompanied minor and the obligations of the Member State in which he or she is present, are unambiguously clear.
Gender balance on corporate boards
We revisit the draft Directive on improving the gender balance on the boards of listed companies. The Government has consistently opposed the Directive. Whilst it supports greater gender balance on company boards, it considers the proposed EU-wide 40% quantative objective for non-executive directors to be tokenistic, counter-productive and tantamount to introducing quotas. We recommended that the House issue a Reasoned Opinion on the proposal, which it endorsed in January 2013. Progress since then has been slow and a number of Member States – enough to constitute a blocking majority within the Council – also have reservations about the draft Directive. The Italian Presidency failed to secure a general approach on the proposal in December and further progress on the draft Directive, as well as the UK’s ability to sustain a blocking majority, remain uncertain. We ask for early notice, and, if possible, sight, of any compromise proposal on which the Presidency may seek to secure a general approach within the Council.
Other documents
We are also reporting on documents relating to:
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Free movement and public documents; The EU’s Special Representative (EUSR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina and wider EUSR issues;
- Ministry of Justice: Data Protection in the EU;
- Treasury: Macro-financial assistance: Ukraine; Multiannual Financial Framework.
The Committee’s 30th Report of Session 2014-15 will be published soon, covering: Subsidiarity and Proportionality and the Commission’s relations with national Parliaments; Restrictive measures against Syria; Investment plan for Europe; Scrutiny of the UK’s 2014 block opt-out decision; Shareholder rights; The Telecommunications Single Market; EU restrictive measures against Côte d’Ivoire; EU restrictive measures against Tunisia; International Code of Conduct on Outer Space Activities; Restrictive measures against Iran: nuclear issues; EU Development Assistance; EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights; Road safety; Working time: inland waterway transport; Rail research and innovation.