Supplementary memorandum from Mr Kim Darroch,
Ambassador and United Kingdom Permanent Representative
I do hope that the Committee found its recent
visit to Brussels informative and helpful. I was pleased to be
able to be of assistance and look forward to working with you
in the future.
19 SEPTEMBER 2007
Further to the corrections to the transcript,
which have been sent on to the Committee Clerk, I am writing to
provide you with additional information on the issue of equality
between Members of the European Parliament.
THE EQUAL
STATUS OF
MEPS
Lord Roper raised the issue of whether UK MEPs
might be excluded from voting on EU issues on which the UK did
not participate, such as elements of JHA. This issue was, I understand,
also raised with the Minister for Europe during his evidence session
before the Foreign Affairs Committee on 12 September. As the Minister
said before Committee we believe that there should only be one
class of MEP, with full rights to participate in all debates and
discussions in the European Parliament. This is in fact the position
at the moment. Various national opt-outs have existed since 1993—in
no case have they affected the equal status of MEPs from those
countries. For example, UK, Danish and Swedish MEPs sit on and
participate fully in all aspects of the work of the EP's Economic
and Monetary Affaris Committee, although the UK, Denmark and Sweden
are not members of the Eurozone.
16 October 2007
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