European Scrutiny Committee Meeting Summary: 24 March 2015

• European Scrutiny Committee

The Committee considered the following documents:

Employment guidelines

Last week we recommended that the draft Council Recommendation establishing four broad guidelines for Member States’ economic policies be debated in European Committee B. This week we consider four further guidelines for Member States’ employment policies. These two sets of guidelines are “intrinsically interconnected”, and together they constitute new “integrated guidelines” which are intended to provide a framework for policy coordination within the annual European Semester and to underpin the remaining years of the EU’s Europe 2020 Strategy for jobs and growth. We recommend that these guidelines be debated alongside the guidelines for economic policies, and urge the Government to ensure that this debate takes place before the June Employment and Social Policy Council and the European Council.

Female genital mutilation

In November 2013, the Commission published a Communication which described the action already taken by the EU to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) and proposed a series of further (non-legislative) actions to: ensure a better understanding of the prevalence of FGM within the EU; promote sustainable change to prevent FGM; support more effective prosecution of FGM; provide protection for girls or women at risk of FGM; and contribute to the worldwide elimination of FGM. The Government’s view was that many of the objectives and actions set out by the Commission could be sufficiently achieved by Member States alone, but it acknowledged that action to encourage more effective sharing of best practice, as well as EU funding initiatives and better monitoring of the transposition of relevant EU legislation, could add more value when taken at EU level. When we last considered this Communication, more than a year ago, we noted that the Justice and Home Affairs Council was expected to agree Conclusions on violence against women and girls in June 2014. We asked the Government to tell us what type of EU action on FGM it expected to be included in the draft Conclusions and, once a draft became available, to indicate whether it considered the action proposed to be appropriate and proportionate. Meanwhile, we retained the Communication under scrutiny. The Minister belatedly now assures us that the Conclusions that were adopted are “appropriate and proportionate”. The focus now will be on implementation of both the Communication and the Council Conclusions, which we consider will be of wider interest to the House. Accordingly, we recommend a debate in European Committee B which should concentrate on the respective roles of the Commission and Member States and the “added value” of EU action.

International cooperation to prevent match-fixing

We consider two Council decisions which would authorise the EU to sign the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions. The purpose of this Convention is to protect the integrity of sport and sports ethics by establishing a range of measures to prevent, detect and sanction match-fixing which apply, variously, to public authorities, sports governing organisations, competition organisers, and those providing sports betting services. The Minister for Sport and Tourism (Mrs Helen Grant) accepts that the EU may have a role to play in combating match-fixing but questions whether the Commission has established any areas of exclusive EU external competence and how action at EU level to implement the Convention would add value to Member States’ efforts. We make a number of observations concerning competence, and in light of these concerns, and the wide interest in the subject matter of the Convention, we consider that the draft Decisions should be debated in European Committee C.

Energy Union Package

We consider two Communications put forward as part of a new Energy Union Package. The first of these sets out a Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy, and is structured around five mutually reinforcing dimensions¬ – energy security, solidarity and trust; a fully integrated European energy market; energy efficiency; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness – which together are designed to deliver greater energy security, sustainability and competitiveness. The second communication sets out a strategy for achieving the agreed 10% interconnection target for Europe’s electricity grid by 2020. Both documents are undoubtedly important, and we therefore hold them under scrutiny.

Other documents

We are also reporting on documents relating to:

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Plant reproductive material; 
• Food Standards Authority: Food law: official controls; 
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office: European security and defence: preparing for the June 2015 European Defence Council; Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Missions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: EUBAM Rafah & EUPOL COPPs; The EU and Central Asia; Rule of Law in the EU; Minerals originating in conflict-affected and high-risk areas: an integrated EU approach; Free movement and public documents; Ukraine and Russia: EU restrictive measures; Towards a new European Neighbourhood Policy; 
• Justice: Comitology – adaption of the regulatory procedure with scrutiny; Rule of Law in the EU; Procedural rights; 
• Transport: Civil aviation: passenger protection; Safety standards for fishermen, maritime safety and inland waterways: freight;
• Treasury: Taxation; 
• Work and Pensions: European aid to the most deprived; Trans-boundary effects of industrial pollution; Integrating labour markets.

The Committee’s 37th Report of Session 2014-15 will be published on Friday 27 March, covering: Restrictive measures against Iran: nuclear issues: Broad guidelines for economic policies; National Emissions Ceilings; Network Information Security; Shareholder rights; EU legislation on waste; Access to published works for the visually impaired; Accession of Ecuador to the EU Trade Agreement with Columbia and the Peru; Extra-territorial effects of legislation from third countries; Reforms to the EU’s trade mark regime; Gender balance on corporate boards; The Telecommunications Market; Financing European Union operations having military or defence implications; Greenhouse gas emissions from EU institutions and buildings; Consumption of primary sources of energy; Transport of radioactive material; The EU and the post-2015 development agenda; The EU and the post-2015 development agenda; Fishing conditions for deep sea stocks; Bosnia and Herzegovina: EU restrictive measures; EU-Ukraine: EU restrictive measures; The EU and the Central African Republic; EU Special Representative for Kosovo; Common Security and Defence Policy: EULEX Kosovo: allegations of corruption; Restrictive measures against Syria; increasing the number of judges at the General Court; the EU and Guinea-Bissau; Restrictive measures against Syria; Regulation of new psychoactive substances; The European Police College; The EU and the post-2015 development agenda; EU humanitarian assistance; Gender equality and women’s empowerment in development 2010-2015; Capital Markets Union; Financial services, taxation and financial assistance to Member States; Taxation; Stability and Growth Pact.