Memorandum by Jim Murphy MP, Minister
for Europe
Thank you for your letter of 22 July enclosing
a transcript of the evidence from the House of Lords European
Union Select Committee session on 15 July. I am pleased you found
the evidence session useful.
Please find enclosed a corrected version of
the transcript amended where appropriate. There was only one point
of clarification. At the evidence session, I also promised to
provide you with further information on the following subjects;
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), recent work with Spain on migration
issues and the progress made towards the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
On CCS, I enclose a UK non-paper expressing
views on current proposals for EU mechanisms to support CCS. This
paper was transmitted to the French Presidency on 31 July. (not
printed)
In April I visited Spain and co-hosted a roundtable
discussion on migration with senior advisers to the Spanish Government,
academic experts and a Counsellor from the Moroccan Embassy in
Madrid. We had a very constructive meeting focusing on the political
and practical steps needed to build effective co-operation with
third countries to help manage migration at source. During my
visit, the UK and Spain agreed to closer cooperation and to support
each other's work in Africa. The Spanish agreed to participate
in the UK-led co-operation platforms (a series of working level
meetings to discuss migration challenges with the Ethiopian government)
and the UK agreed to support Spanish initiatives in Africa, such
as future cooperation in Senegal.
On MDGs there is currently no international
standard methodology for assessing country level progress, reporting
is at a global and regional level only. The 2007 UN MDG report
provides a good overview of these latest indicators and is available
from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf. In light
of these limitations, DFID are in the process of developing a
country level assessment methodology for monitoring MDG progress
in the 22 priority countries agreed by our Public Service Agreement
on International Poverty Reduction (PSA29). This is due to be
launched in the department's Autumn Performance Report, a copy
of which I will make available to you once published.
21 August 2008
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