Meeting Summary
The Committee considered the following documents:
European Semester 2015
The European Semester is an EU-level framework for
coordinating and assessing annually Member States' structural
reforms and fiscal/budgetary policy and for monitoring and addressing
macroeconomic imbalances. We recommended the first stage of the
European Semester for debate in European Committee B, and this
debate took place last week. As the second stage of the Semester
the Commission has published its Communication on an assessment
of growth challenges, prevention and correction of macroeconomic
imbalances, and results of in-depth reviews of Member States'
economic situations. It is accompanied by Commission Staff Working
Documents giving Country Reports for all Member States, apart
from Greece. The reports contain an in-depth review of macroeconomic
imbalances (where applicable), and an assessment of Member States'
progress in addressing their 2014 Country-Specific Recommendations.
The Government broadly welcomes the Commission Communication and,
with some reservations, the UK Country Report. We recommend that
these two documents be debated in European Committee B, together
with the Commission's draft 2015 Country-Specific Recommendations,
once available.
Strategic guidelines for EU justice and Home Affairs
and the renewal of the EU Internal Security Strategy
In June 2014, the European Council agreed the latest
set of guidelines for the development of EU justice and home affairs
policies and legislation. Two Commission Communications —
one covering EU justice policy, the other home affairs policy
— were the only publically accessible available documents
available in advance of the European Council adopting the conclusions.
We recommended these documents for debate in April 2014, and this
debate remains unscheduled. The Minister now informs us that the
EU Internal Security Strategy agreed in 2010 has now expired and
sets out the steps for agreeing a new strategy; the Commission
Communication on the successor to strategy is expected to be published
in April, when Parliament will be dissolved, and the new strategy
will be formally agreed at the June 2015 Justice and Home Affairs
Council. This timing means that, due to the election, neither
this Committee, nor its successor, will have the opportunity to
scrutinise the Strategy before discussions on its content have
concluded. We accept that the Government cannot be held responsible
for the timing of decision-making in Brussels. However it was
clear that the new Strategy would be agreed in mid-June, and this
makes the Government's decision not to schedule the debate we
recommended on the strategic guidelines all the more deplorable
and indefensible. We consider that if the Government wishes to
breathe life into its commitment to "reduce the democratic
deficit over EU matters", it should now schedule this debate.
Rule of Law in the EU
The Government has written to us to update us on
the proposed Rule of Law Framework, which is intended to better
protect the rule of law in all Member States by addressing and
resolving situations where there is such a threat to the rule
of law. We recommended the Commission Communication proposing
this Framework for debate on the floor of the House last May.
This debate has still not been arranged, which is particularly
disappointing given that, as the Government acknowledges, the
issue of rule of law monitoring and compliance remains a live
one; there is the prospect of further dialogue in the Council
in 2015 and we agree that it would be "complacent to imagine
that the Commission will not try to take further action in relation
to the rule of law in future". We urge the Government to
schedule the debate we recommended 10 months ago before dissolution.
We also ask it to provide us with its view on the opinion of the
Council Legal Service of 27 May which concludes that the Commission
is not competent to bring forward the proposed framework.
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