Select Committee on European Scrutiny Thirteenth Report


EC/SWITZERLAND: SEVEN SECTORAL AGREEMENTS


(21099)


Draft Commission and Council Decision on the conclusion of seven
agreements with the Swiss Confederation.
Legal base: Article 310 and Article 300 (2), (3) and (4) TEC; and
Article 101 EURATOM; assent; unanimity
Department: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Basis of consideration: EM of 31 March
Previous Committee Report: None; but see (20157): HC 34-xxii (1998-99), paragraph 15
(16 June 1999)
To be discussed in Council: 10 April General Affairs Council
Committee's assessment: Politically important
Committee's decision: Not cleared; further information requested

Introduction

  14.1  The EU has been negotiating a series of bilateral agreements between the Community and the Swiss Confederation since 1994 and in June 1999 a package of seven Agreements, covering specific sectors, were signed. These Agreements now need to be formally approved, six on behalf of the Community and the seventh, which covers science and technology, on behalf of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) as well. The other six Agreements cover air transport, the carriage of goods and passengers by rail and road, trade in agricultural products, mutual recognition in relation to conformity assessment, and certain aspects of government procurement.

  14.2  In an EM of 31 March, received late on 4 April, the Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Mr Vaz) says that the draft Decision under scrutiny here is expected to be taken at the 10 April General Affairs Council (GAC), by which time the European Parliament is expected to have given its assent.

The Commission's proposal

  14.3  The package signed last year[38] was for separate Council Decisions under a variety of legal bases. It is now proposed that these seven Agreements should, as before, remain intimately linked to one another by a requirement that they come into force at the same time, but should have one legal base, Article 310 and Article 300 (parts 2,3 and 4) of the TEC, and be approved by means of a single Commission and Council Decision. The Agreement on Science and Technology will, additionally, have as a legal base Article 101 of the Treaty establishing the EAEC.

  14.4  Paragraph 3 of the Recital to the Decision states that the undertakings in the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons, which fall within the scope of Part Three, Title IV of the TEC, are not binding on the UK, Denmark and Ireland as obligations under Community law but as obligations arising from an undertaking between them and the Swiss Confederation.

The Government's view

  14.5  The Minister says that:

    "The special position of the UK in terms of our Protocol on Title IV of the TEC is preserved by paragraph 3 of the Recital...".

  14.6  He comments that, on the strength of this recital, the UK will be able to maintain a consistent policy approach to the entry and residence of third country nationals. The other policy implications of this proposal are unchanged.

Conclusion

  14.7  When we last considered these Agreements at our meeting on 16 June 1999, we noted, but had some difficulty in understanding, the Government's then view that the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons ("The FMOP Agreement") was mixed[39] and so would require ratification by national parliaments following signature. Although we cleared the document we requested an explanation.

  14.8  The Minister has now informed us, in an Explanatory Memorandum which we received yesterday, that all the Agreements (including the FMOP Agreement) will be concluded on behalf of the European Community (together with, in one case, Euratom) by means of a single Commission and Council Decision. He does not explain the Government's current view on the "mixity" of the FMOP Agreement nor the reasons for its (apparent) change of mind on that point.

  14.9  The Minister assures us that the UK's special position on maintaining passport controls at its internal frontier is preserved by a recital. He adds that the UK will conclude that part of the FMOP Agreement falling within Title IV EC in its own right.

  14.10  The UK's competence on frontier controls is preserved, not by the recital to which the Minister refers, but by the Protocol on the application of certain aspects of Article 7a in the Treaty of Amsterdam. With commendable foresight it established that the UK is entitled to maintain passport controls at its internal frontier, "notwithstanding any international agreement concluded by the Community or by the Community and its Member States with one or more third States."

  14.11  The Minister does not explain how the UK will conclude those parts of the FMOP Agreement which fall within Title IV EC on a national basis.

  • do Member States other than Denmark, Ireland and the UK regard adoption of this Decision as constituting ratification on their behalf of the FMOP Agreement which they agreed together with the Community?

  • will the UK ratify that Agreement by a separate instrument and, if so, what Parliamentary procedure will be followed?

  • or does the UK regard adoption of this Decision as constituting its ratification of its separate undertakings with the Swiss Confederation?

  • will the UK be separately represented on the Joint Committee set up under Article 14 of the FMOP Agreement?

  14.12  Until we have the Minister's explanation of these points we are not in a position to clear the document.


38  (20157) - ; see HC 34-xxii (1998-99), paragraph 15 (16 June 1999). Back

39  Within the competence of the EC and of its Member States and so requiring to be concluded by both. Back


 
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