EUROPEAN GROUPING OF TERRITORIAL CO-OPERATION
(EGTC) (7554/06)
Letter from Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP,
Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, Department of
Trade and Industry to the Chairman
The above document is a revised proposal issued
by the Commission for a regulation to create a new legal entity,
the European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation (EGTC), to manage
cross-border co-operation activities between two or more Member
States within the European Union. The revised proposal was issued
after amendments were proposed by the European Parliament.
However, the original proposal has continued
to proceed through negotiations in the Council and was agreed
there on 5 May 2006. Therefore this document will not now form
the basis of negotiations or a regulation. We expect the Commission
to withdraw it accordingly, and we will inform you when this happens.
The scrutiny history of the proposal which formed
the basis for negotiations and of the new regulation to create
the EGTC is as follows:
EM 11689/04 on a European Grouping of Cross-Border
Co-operation. The Commons European Scrutiny Committee cleared
it (Report 32, Session 03/04). The Lords Select Committee on the
EU sifted it to Sub-Committee A and cleared it from scrutiny (Progress
of Scrutiny, 7 February 2005, Session 04/05).
25 May 2006
Letter from Rt Hon Ian McCartney MP, Minister
for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Department of Trade
and Industry/Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Chairman
I am writing to update you on the above Commission
proposal.
In May, Margaret Hodge wrote to you explaining
that this revised proposal for the EGTC will not be the subject
of discussion or agreement, and that we expected the Commission
to withdraw it. The proposal was superseded by the initial proposal,
which continued to form the basis of negotiations and was agreed
by the Council.
The Commission has informed my officials that
there is no requirement for it formally to withdraw redundant
proposals like this one. It has periodically withdrawn some redundant
proposals for administrative clarity, but this is not mandatory
and at present there are no current plans to withdraw this one.
However, Commission officials emphasise that this does not affect
the redundancy of the proposal. It has been superseded by agreement
on the initial proposal. It does not stand, there will be no further
action to take it forward, and we can consider it closed.
I hope that this clarifies the status of this
proposal for your records.
11 August 2006
| 
