Meeting Summary
This week the Committee considered the following
documents:
Banking Union: single resolution mechanism
This Draft Regulation and European Central Bank Opinion
have been under scrutiny for some time and were last considered
in December. We said that given the continuing uncertainty over
the likely final form of the SRM we were not prepared to clear
the documents from scrutiny in advance of the ECOFIN Council on
18 December, but we granted a conditional waiver. The Minister
now writes to tell us about the general approach on the draft
Regulation — on which the Government abstained — and
related agreements reached at the ECOFIN Council, and elaborates
on a number of points of particular interest to the UK. The Minister
concludes that the Government believes that the agreement on the
SRM represents an important step in setting up a workable eurozone
Banking Union, which it supports, and that the next step will
be to ensure that the gains the Government has secured during
the Council negotiation are protected during trilogues with the
European Parliament. The Committee asks for regular updates and
is keeping the documents under scrutiny.
EU Special Representative for the Middle East
Peace Process
This Council Decision would end the mandate of the
EUSR to the Middle East Peace Process. It is the result of the
decision taken by the Political and Security Committee in November
2013 to transfer these responsibilities to the European External
Action Service (EEAS). The Minister supports the proposal, judging
that this will continue the UK objective of an effective and efficient
EU contribution to the ongoing negotiations, which aim to achieve
a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We ask
the Minister to comment on reports that this proposal was objected
to by some Member States because it was seen as prejudging a general
review underway of EUSR roles. We also ask the Minister to write
to us — before any decision is taken and no later than before
the Easter recess— to outline what options regarding the
EU's engagement with the peace process are then under active consideration.
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