Meeting Summary
The Committee considered the following documents:
Committee correspondence with Lord Hall
Last January, we invited Lord Hall, Director-General
of the BBC, to appear before us to give evidence as part of the
follow-up work to our Report on Reforming the European Scrutiny
System in the House of Commons, which included consideration of
the media visibility of scrutiny and which was based on evidence
taken from senior BBC managers. Lord Hall has repeatedly declined
to appear before us, but has this week confirmed that he will
do so on 11 March 2015. We decide this week to publish the correspondence
between us and Lord Hall, and successive Chairmen of the BBC Trust,
about our requests for them to appear before us. This decision
was taken in order to fully explain the situation and to place
the matter in the public domain. Rona Fairhead, Chairman of the
BBC Trust, appeared before us on 14 January.
The Commission Work Programme 2015
This week we consider the Commission's Work Programme
(CWP) for 2015, which sets out the Commission's priorities for
2015. In comparison to last year, the Commission proposes fewer
new initiatives, more modifications and withdrawals of existing
proposals, and more actions under its Regulatory Fitness and Performance
(REFIT) programme. The Government welcomes this, and the Commission's
focus on a number of areas such as jobs, growth and investment
and energy and climate change policy. Nine Select Committee Chairs
have also provided us with their committees' views on which of
the proposals contained within the CWP are the most important,
and we annex these responses in full to our chapter. As is our
usual practice, we recommend this document for debate on the floor
of the House, given its wide-ranging nature and the significant
degree of interest across the House. This debate should take place
as soon as possible, to allow Members to have an early say on
the Commission's proposals for 2015.
Unaccompanied minors seeking asylum
We consider a draft Regulation which would amend
the Dublin Regulation to clarify the rules determining which Member
State is responsible for examining an asylum application made
by an unaccompanied minor who has no other family members in the
EU. The proposal is subject to the UK's Title V (justice and home
affairs) opt-in, and the deadline for notification of the UK's
opt-in decision expired on 16 October 2014. The Minister now confirms
that the UK has opted-into the draft Regulation. He does not apologise
for, or even acknowledge, the delay in notifying Parliament of
the Government's decision. We ask him to provide an urgent and
detailed explanation of the reasons for the delay, failing which
we shall expect him to appear before us and explain in person.
We also ask the Minister whether he will be seeking further amendment
of the text to ensure that both the rights of an unaccompanied
minor and the obligations of the Member State in which he or she
is present, are unambiguously clear.
Gender balance on corporate boards
We revisit the draft Directive on improving the gender
balance on the boards of listed companies. The Government has
consistently opposed the Directive. Whilst it supports greater
gender balance on company boards, it considers the proposed EU-wide
40% quantative objective for non-executive directors to be tokenistic,
counter-productive and tantamount to introducing quotas. We recommended
that the House issue a Reasoned Opinion on the proposal, which
it endorsed in January 2013. Progress since then has been slow
and a number of Member States — enough to constitute a blocking
majority within the Council — also have reservations about
the draft Directive. The Italian Presidency failed to secure a
general approach on the proposal in December and further progress
on the draft Directive, as well as the UK's ability to sustain
a blocking majority, remain uncertain. We ask for early notice,
and, if possible, sight, of any compromise proposal on which the
Presidency may seek to secure a general approach within the Council.
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