Meeting Summary
This week the Committee considered the following
documents:
The EU and the Central African Republic
We are continuing our detailed scrutiny of these
Council Decisions, and report in two separate Chapters this week
on the latest updates we have received from the Foreign Office.
We clear the two Council Decisions to launch the mission and
on its status in the CAR (known as the Status of Forces Agreement),
asking the Minister for Europe to deposit in due course the assessment
by the Political and Security Committee of the Operation's progress,
which is due three months after its launch.
The European Solidarity Fund
These two related documents (a Draft Regulation and
a Commission Report) have been considered by the Committee in
September 2013 and January 2014 respectively; in both cases we
asked for further information, which has now been received. It
seems that a general approach on the Draft Regulation appears
to be under discussion with the European Parliament and Commission
in trilogues; we keep the Regulation under scrutiny and ask the
Minister whether this general approach meets its key objectives.
When considering the Communication in February, we asked the
Government whether it intended to apply to the Fund in connection
with the recent severe flooding in the UK if the necessary criteria
were met. The Minister has replied but is not yet fully able
to answer the Committee's questions, particularly as to whether
or not the Government intends to make an application for assistance
from the Fund. Pending that fuller response the Commission Report,
too, remains under scrutiny.
Voting rights of EU citizens
This Commission Communication and Recommendation
recommend ways of ensuring that EU citizens living in another
Member State retain the right to vote in national Parliamentary
elections in their Member State of origin. The recommendations
mainly concern five Member States — Cyprus, Denmark, Ireland,
Malta and the UK — whose electoral laws remove the right
to vote in national elections when resident abroad (although the
length of absence triggering the removal of the right varies significantly,
from as little as six months in Cyprus to 15 years in the UK).
As the Minister observes, the Communication and Recommendation
have no direct policy or legal implications, and the Recommendation
has no binding force. Because of the interest in the House in
these matters, we report them while clearing them from scrutiny.
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