Meeting Summary
This week the Committee considered the
following documents:
Tobacco Products Directive:
These proposals to strengthen EU rules
on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related
products have been, in various forms, under scrutiny since January
2013. The original Draft Directive was cleared from scrutiny
following a debate in European Committee in December, but the
Government accepted that the changes made to the proposals in
the course of trilogue negotiations were sufficiently substantial
to require a further Explanatory Memorandum, which re-imposes
the scrutiny reserve. The Committee, therefore, is now considering
the compromise text agreed (subject to formal approval) by the
Council and European Parliament last December. The most significant
change concerns the regulatory model for e-cigarettes, in which
most e-cigarettes would be regulated as consumer products, not
as medicines, as the UK Government had wished, but with additional
safeguards to discourage their promotion and use by children,
monitor their ingredients, emissions, nicotine dosage and product
components, and limit their nicotine content, as well as restrictions
on advertising and activities similar to those applicable to tobacco
products. We welcome the publication and deposit of the compromise
text so that it is open to scrutiny, and note that while the appropriate
regulatory model for e-cigarettes continues to be contested, the
Government believes that the overall public health benefits of
strengthened EU tobacco controls outweigh its remaining concerns.
We clear the proposal from scrutiny.
Clinical trials
This Draft Regulation would repeal the
Clinical Trials Directive, in force since 2004, and replace it
with what the Commission argues is a less burdensome set of rules
covering the authorisation and conduct of clinical trials. We
have held it under scrutiny since September 2012 and most recently
have been following developments in trilogue negotiations. We
note that the outcome of these negotiations, in the Government's
view, is likely to be acceptable to UK stakeholders and we welcome
the strengthening of provisions on the transparency of clinical
trials and clinical trial data which go a long way to achieving
the objectives set out in the recent Report of the House of Commons
Science and Technology Committee. Accordingly we clear the document
from scrutiny.
EU enlargement strategy
This Commission Communication provides
an annual overview of progress on EU enlargement. It and the
accompanying Country Progress Reports were retained under scrutiny
last November and further information requested. We clear the
Communication but note one very significant outstanding issue:
whether or not Albania should be granted accession candidate status,
a question which will be discussed at EU level later this year.
We ask the Minister at that time to provide us with an unqualified
statement of the Government's position before the event, so that
we can scrutinise it.
Clean Air Programme, national emissions
ceilings and atmospheric emissions from medium combustion plants
This package of a Commission Communication
and two Draft Directives respectively: set out a Clean Air Programme
for Europe; propose a new EU measure to reduce national emissions
of certain atmospheric pollutants; and introduce limits on the
emission of certain atmospheric pollutants from medium combustion
plants. We report, but clear, the Communication, but retain the
two Draft Directives under scrutiny, asking the Government for
its assessment of the potential impact on the UK (including costs
and benefits) and progress reports on negotiations.
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