Meeting Summary
This week the Committee considered the following
documents:
Europe for Citizens Programme
This Draft Regulation re-establishes the Europe for
Citizens Programme for the period 2014-2020 and has been under
scrutiny since February 2012. We recommended it for debate in
European Committee on 27 November 2013 but the Government failed
to schedule the debate until recently (it is now due to take place
on Wednesday 2 April). Concerns have been expressed that the
scrutiny situation has jeopardised funding for civil society organisations
in the UK, including some planning events to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. To avoid
any confusion of who has been responsible for this delay, we make
clear in the conclusion that it is entirely attributable
to the Government. We note that this was one of a number of documents
subject to such delays, and that on 26 February we wrote to the
Leader of the House complaining about the situation, noting that
"such delays potentially render the scrutiny process meaningless".
The Leader of the House replied that "I regret that there
have been some delays recently in scheduling debates in respect
of documents recommended for debate by your Committee. The delays
have been due in part to time taken in obtaining the information
from the European Commission requested by your Committee (for
example in the case of the EU Staff Regulations) and in part due
to the need to secure agreement across Government". We note
that the reasons cited by the Leader do not apply in this case.
As the Government has now, belatedly, scheduled the debate we
consider that it should take its course so that the Minister can
be held to account for the unconscionable delay.
The EU and Ukraine
The Committee continues its scrutiny of the various
EU documents emerging as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. This
week we report the latest set of restrictive measures which have
been applied to 21 individuals, including Sergey Valeryavich Aksyonov,
who in the words of the Annex to the Council Regulation
in question "was elected 'Prime Minister of Crimea'
in the Crimean Verkovna Rada on 27 February 2014 in the presence
of pro-Russian gunmen"; seven additional Ukrainians, who
were also involved in the events in Crimea leading to the "referendum",
plus for the first time ten Russian parliamentarians
and three senior Russian military personnel similarly involved.
We note a letter from the Minister which reports that the EU
has pressed ahead with signature of the political provisions of
the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and sets out which parts
of the Agreement have and have not been 'provisionally applied'.
In view of the continuing developments in the Ukraine crisis,
we are recommending these restrictive measures for debate on the
floor of the House as soon as possible. We also report on EU
measures relating to macro-financial assistance to Ukraine and
introducing a new system of autonomous trade preferences for goods
originating there.
EU training of Malian armed forces and EU military
operation in the Central African Republic
The Council Decision relating to Mali marks the first
step in establishing a new civilian CSDP mission to train the
Malian Police, Gendarmerie and National Guard. Much work remains
to be done filling out the details before a further Council Decision
to launch the mission will be considered in the autumn. We clear
this Council Decision, hoping that when the second Decision comes
before us in the autumn, the Minister will be able to comment
in more detail about the exit strategy and the sort of timeline
and scope that Member States envisage for longer-term EU involvement.
On the Central African Republic, we consider a Council Decision
relating to a transfer of prisoners agreement in connection with
the EU military operation there. This is part of a series of
agreements relating to the Mission, raises no issues, and we clear
it; we also report on an update letter from the Minister for Europe,
following the 17 March Foreign Affairs Council; it is clear from
those Council Conclusions that the scheduled end of March deployment
is no longer feasible due to failure of Member States to provide
the necessary resources.
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