B. CASES WHERE EFFECTIVE SCRUTINY HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE
33. DRAFT DIRECTIVE RELATING TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS TERMINAL
EQUIPMENT AND SATELLITE EARTH STATION EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING MUTUAL
RECOGNITION OF CONFORMITY (4278/96)
Letter from Barbara Roche MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary
of State for Small Firms, Trade and Industry, Department of Trade
and Industry, to Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee
I am writing to you as Chairman of the House of Lords Select
Committee on European Legislation to inform you and, through you,
your committee that for administrative reasons the scrutiny reserve
on the above draft directive has had to be raised.
The purpose of this draft Directive is to combine Directives
on the mutual recognition of conformity of telecommunications
terminal and satellite earth station equipment (Directives 91/263/EEC,
93/97/EEC, and 93/68/EEC) into an officially codified single text
which is clearer and more accessible.
On 28 February 1996 the House of Commons Select Committee
when it considered this draft Directive and Explanatory Memorandum
(4278/96) made no recommendation but asked for further information
on the extent to which the opportunity of this consolidation would
be used to clarify the legislation involved. No such specific
action involving clarification was in mind and the draft proposal
is a consolidation of existing texts and no more.
A response is outstanding but the delay is referable to the
fact that the European Commission did not bring forward a further
and substantive Directive in this area until June of this year.
This Directive on Connected Telecommunications Equipment and the
Mutual Recognition of the Conformity of the Equipment which is
designed to fully harmonise the market for telecommunications
terminal and radio equipment within Europe was the subject of
an Explanatory Memorandum (8944/97) submitted on 28 July 1997,
and considered but not cleared by the Commons Committee, pending
the supply of further information, on 30 July 1997.
In order not to hold up business which is in the UK's interest
and given the nature of the proposal which is a consolidating
directive I hope that the Committees will understand why it was
felt appropriate to lift the reserve in this particular case.
29 October 1997
Letter from Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee,
to Barbara Roche MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for
Small Firms, Trade and Industry, Department of Trade and Industry
Thank you for your letter of 29 October and your subsequent
supplementary Explanatory Memorandum of 17 November on the above
document.
Your letter provided an explanation for why the Parliamentary
scrutiny reserve on the draft Directive had been raised before
the completion of the scrutiny process. It is regrettable that
the timetable for the proposal has led to this situation.
In the event, however, the draft Directive was sifted to
Sub-Committee B for information only and is therefore no longer
under scrutiny.
10 December 1997
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