Meeting Summary
The Committee considered the following documents:
EU support for rehabilitation following the earthquake
in Haiti
This week we consider the European Court of Auditors'
Special Report on EU support for rehabilitation in Haiti following
the 2010 earthquake. The report concludes that the EU support
was well designed overall and had met Haiti's most important needs.
However it also finds that the programmes were not implemented
effectively enough and the link between relief, rehabilitation
and development was insufficient. The report makes a number of
recommendations to the Commission regarding what it can do to
improve the effectiveness of its post-disaster operations. The
Commission accepts these recommendations, and this is welcomed
by the Government. The Minister (Lynne Featherstone) emphasises
that disaster resilience is key to bridging humanitarian and developmental
effort, and explains that she and her team "will continue
to emphasise the need to bridge humanitarian and development effort,
including through our role as co-chair of the Political Champions
Group as an advocate of disaster resilience". We ask the
Minister for further information about this Group, and request
an update on the implementation of the Commission's Action Plan
for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020.
Integrated Border Management Assistance Mission
in Libya
The EU Integrated Border Management Assistance Mission
in Libya (EUBAM Libya) was established in May 2013, with a two-year
mandate. The aim of the Mission is to support the Libyan authorities
in developing capacity for enhancing the security of their borders
in the short term and a broader Integrated Border Management (IBM)
strategy in the longer term. The Minister wrote to us in August
explaining that, due to the deterioration of the situation in
Libya, staff from the mission had been withdrawn and re-located
to Tunis and Brussels. This week we report a letter from the Minister
which explains that there will be a second Review of the Mission.
We comment that although we of course hope that the situation
in Libya improves, it is hard to see it doing so before the end
of the year. We therefore consider it appropriate that all of
the options are on the table, including closure of the Mission,
especially given the EU's experience with EUBAM Rafah, a similar
operation on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which
has been on stand-by since 2007 due to the security situation.
We request to receive an update no later than 11 December.
Network Information Security across the EU
This draft Council Directive seeks to ensure a high
common level of network and information security across the EU,
and we have retained it under scrutiny since May 2013. A position
has now been adopted on its legal base (which was the UK's preferred
position) but there remains two issues on which agreement has
not been reached: scope and operational co-operation. We understand
that the next Working Group is due to take place on 30 October,
and that the Presidency intends for a text to be agreed at this
meeting. This text would then be adopted at COREPER and be taken
forward for consideration in the European Parliament. We understand
that this process would begin prior to the endorsement by the
November Telecoms Council. We make clear that we expect a revised
text to be submitted as soon as possible for prior scrutiny, and
in any event before it is agreed at COREPER.
Handbook on marriages of convenience
This week we also consider a Commission Communication
which summaries the content of an EU handbook on marriages of
convenience, which is intended to assist Member States in identifying
these marriages. The Government says that the handbook will be
helpful in raising awareness and supporting Member States in the
identification and prevention of marriages of convenience, and
that it promotes operational cooperation between Member States
to tackle this issue. We clear the document from scrutiny, but
highlight that it is relevant to the debate that we recommended
in January 2014 on the wider-ranging Commission Communication
on the free movement of EU citizens. We point out that this debate
has not yet been scheduled, despite the fact that we recommended
it nine months ago. We expect the Government to schedule a date
for the debate forthwith, or to write to us setting out the reasons
for the delay.
| 
