6 Engagement in Europe
32. Since so much policy is either influenced by
or driven by decisions at a European level, the Government believes
that it is important to the UK's interests that UK politicians
engage much more fully in the European policy debate and scrutiny.
Traditionally, the UK has not been so active, or effective, in
political engagement at the European level as some of our partners.
The increasing joint working between Committees of this House
and those of the European Parliament and of other national Parliaments
is greatly to be welcomed in this respect. The increasing links
between Members and UK MEPsfor example, the regular informal
meetings which are now taking place between the European Scrutiny
Committee and UK MEPsare particularly valuable. The Government
hopes that the House authorities will facilitate this by extending
the access that UK MEPs have to facilities in the Palace of Westminster.
33. For individual Members, engagement with European
colleagues has been greatly facilitated by the Members' European
travel scheme, which allows each Member up to three visits a year.
The allowable destinations have recently been increased so that
visits are now permitted to all EU institutions and agencies and
to national parliaments in EU member, candidate and applicant
countries, and in EFTA countries. To date, it has been left to
individual Members to take up this opportunity if they wish. It
is notable that only a minority of Members have done so, and they
complain that three annual visits is not sufficient. It might
be that we should be more proactive in offering more organised,
and perhaps collective, visits under the scheme, while bearing
in mind that our Posts overseas, which do an excellent job in
assisting MPs and Peers, have finite resources for supporting
such visits, and that the level of assistance available will inevitably
vary according to factors such as the size of the Post concerned.
The Modernisation Committee is also invited to explore whether
it would be practicable within the existing (and consistently
underspent) budget to enable those Members who have regular and
valuable contact through approved visits to do so more than three
times.
34. Language skills can contribute considerably to
effective political engagement with European partners. The Government
is exploring with the House authorities whether those Members
who wish might be able to get support from the House for language
training provided by the FCO.
|