Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons Memoranda


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 MEPs—for example, the regular informal meetings which are now taking place between the European Scrutiny Committee and UK MEPs—are 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.


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2004
Prepared 1 April 2004