9 MADRID DONORS' CONFERENCE ON RECONSTRUCTION
IN IRAQ
(24943)
13360/03
COM(03) 575
| Commission Communication: The Madrid Conference on Reconstruction in Iraq — 24 October 2003.
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| Legal base | —
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| Department | International Development
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| Basis of consideration |
Minister's letter of 7 November 2003 |
| Previous Committee Report |
HC 63-xxxiv (2002-03), paragraph 11 (22 October 2003)
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| To be discussed in Council
| Not applicable |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared (decision reported on 22 October 2003)
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Background
9.1 On 23/24 October an international conference was
held in Madrid at which indicative pledges were sought for multilateral
support for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq. The
Communication set out the European Commission's proposals for
the EU's contribution.
9.2 The title of the document made it clear
that the Communication concerned the 24 October conference. It
was issued by the Commission on 1 October and deposited on 10
October. When the Explanatory Memorandum missed our deadline
of 16 October for the document to be considered on 22 October,
our Clerks contacted the Department for International Development.
From the response, it appeared that the Department was working
to the Cabinet Office guidelines to Departments providing ten
days to produce the Explanatory Memorandum after deposit of the
document, despite the fact that this would mean that, in this
case, we would not have an opportunity to consider the Communication
before the Conference.
9.3 We eventually received the signed Explanatory
Memorandum on 22 October, a few hours before our Committee meeting.
We therefore asked the Minister (Mr. Hilary Benn) to tell us
why, given the obvious deadline in the title, the Communication
was not dealt with more expeditiously, by the European Council
(which had taken ten days to deposit the document) and by the
UK Government (which had taken 12 days to submit a signed EM).
We asked him to ensure that in future a greater effort is made
to provide us with more time to consider documents before they
were overtaken.
The Minister's letter
9.4 The Minister replies:
"Firstly I would like to apologise for not
providing your Committee with more time in which to consider this
document. This document was received in my Department on 10 October,
with a normal deadline of 24 October. Given the importance of
the issue it was agreed that this should be cleared with both
the Foreign Office and HMT. This clearance was not received until
late on Monday 20 October.
"My Department made every effort to ensure
that you received a copy of the EM prior to the conference and
provided a working draft to the Clerk while I was signing the
EM.
"I appreciate that this is not within the
time frame that you would have liked but this was unavoidable
given the need for clearance in Whitehall. We will in future make
a greater effort to ensure that where possible your Committee
are given more time to consider documents, particularly when the
deadlines are tight.
"You also asked me to inform you of the
outcome of the negotiations on the budget and the resources to
be made available. The conciliation negotiation between the Council
and Parliament will occur on the 24 November and the second reading
to confirm the 2004 budget will be on 16 December.
"The European Parliament has voted €30
million to Iraq, intending that the remaining €130 million
be provided by the Flexibility Instrument. This will also be
confirmed by Council and Parliament in December."
Conclusion
9.5 We thank the Minister for his assurance
that his Department will make a greater effort to ensure that,
where possible, we are given more time to consider documents,
particularly when the deadlines are tight. We shall ask the Cabinet
Office to make it clearer in the guidelines that ten days is the
maximum period and that the Government should make every effort
to submit Explanatory Memoranda so that we have an opportunity
to scrutinise the documents to which they refer before they are
acted upon.
9.6 We cleared
the document on 22 October 2003.
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