COMMON FISHERIES POLICY (8142/05)
Letter from Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister
for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare, Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the Chairman
I am writing to give you details of the above
proposal, which is scheduled for political agreement as an A point
at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council due to be held on Monday
22 May.
I am also writing to update you on developments
regarding Explanatory Memorandum 8142 of 23 May 2005 on a proposal
establishing Community financial measures for the implementation
of the Common Fisheries Policy. I last wrote to you about this
proposal on 9 November 2005.[77]
Since then, several discussions have taken place
in the Internal Fisheries Group, the most recent of which was
on 30 March. in the light of these discussions the Austrian Presidency
produced a final compromise proposal (Doc 7133/2/06 REV 2), a
copy of which is enclosed (not printed). The details of the changes
made are set out in the Annex to this letter.
In the circumstances it is dearly desirable
for this proposal to be adopted by the Council and unfortunate
that scrutiny procedure could not be completed in time. I wish
to inform the Committee of the Government's decision to proceed.
22 May 2006
Letter from the Chairman to Ben Bradshaw
MP
Thank you for your letter dated 22 May 2006
which EU Sub-Committee D (Environment and Agriculture) considered
at their meeting on 7 June.
The proposal was deposited with the Committee
in May 2005. The accompanying Explanatory Memorandum provided
little information on the Government's negotiating stance as much
depended on the ongoing EU budget negotiations. You wrote further
on 9 November 2005 to provide more detail, but, given that the
next Financial Perspective still remained undecided, the Committee
decided to retain the proposal under scrutiny pending further
developments.
The budget was agreed by the European Council
in December 2005 and we note from your most recent letter that
the above proposal was adopted by the Agriculture Council before
scrutiny clearance had been given. We note that the proposal was
adopted on the same day that your letter was dated. We consider
it particularly disappointing that you were unable to write to
the Committee at an earlier stage to alert Members to developments
on the proposal, given that discussions had been continuing in
the Internal Fisheries Group.
We ask that due account be taken in future to
alert to the Committee to possible consideration of legislation
in Council in order that the Committee's scrutiny role can be
fulfilled before the proposal is considered in Council. The Committee
decided to clear the proposal from scrutiny.
14 June 2006
77 Correspondence with Ministers, 45th Report of
Session 2005-06, HL Paper 243, pp 325-326. Back
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