Letter from the Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP,
Minister for Europe to Lord Grenfell, Chairman of the European
Union Committee
Thank you for your letter of 3 November in which
you asked about the scrutiny of comitology and of confidential
documents.
The Commission are proposing to adopt a Regulation
establishing a Justice & Home Affairs monitoring mechanism
for Romania and Bulgaria based on the Act of Accession. In accordance
with this, Member States will be consulted on the proposal, but
the content and adoption of the measure will ultimately be a matter
for the Commission. Nonetheless, this is a potentially important
measure, which we are therefore proposing to deposit for scrutiny.
On the scrutiny of confidential documents, the
Council Decision adopting the Council's security regulations (28
February 2001) sets out the levels of classification and the application
of those levels. The regulations set out that information shall
be classified only when necessary and shall be maintained only
as long as the information requires protection. The regulations
also set out that the classification of a document shall be determined
by the sensitivity of its contents in accordance with a clear
definition set out in the regulations (Section II, paragraphs
1-4). The regulations also make clear that over classification
can result in a loss of confidence in the validity of the classification
system.
We have confidence that the system appropriately
balances the need to protect national and EU interests with the
need for openness in the EU decision-making process.
However, I think it important to say, that we
have rarely declined to deposit a document due to its security
classification. But where we have done so, we have submitted an
explanatory memorandum (without the document itself) explaining
the key points.
You ask whether anonymising draft texts would
enable them to be declassified. Unfortunately, I do not believe
so. Making differences between the Member States public would
weaken the EU's common position once it was reached. This could
then be exploited in the EU's engagement with third countries
and international organisations.
My officials will pass a copy of the 106 page
Council Decision adopting the Council's security regulations (28
February 2001) to both the Clerk to the Commons Committee and
the Clerk to the Lords Committee.
20 November 2006
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