Examination of Witnesses (Questions 61-76)
29 JANUARY 2008H
E Mr Iztok Mirošič, Mrs Anita Stankovič
Pavlič and Ms Andreja Viher
Q61 Chairman:
May I begin by extending a warm welcome on behalf
of the Committee to you the Ambassador of the country holding
the Presidency, and to your colleagues at the table and other
colleagues sitting behind. We are on the record and we will be
sending you a transcript of the proceedings so that you can see
that your views have been properly reflected. This session is
being sound recorded. I believe you would like to start with an
opening statement, so please begin.
Mr Mirošič: Thank you My Lord Chairman.
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I know many of you and I also
rode in the lift with some of you to the meeting. I am extremely
honoured to be here in front of the EU Select Committee of the
House of Lords. If I may repeat what I said at the reception in
the Foreign Office when we launched the Slovenian Presidency,
2007 was a successful year because we completed enlargement with
Bulgaria and Romania, my country made the first enlargement of
the Eurozone and the Schengen area was enlarged to nine new member
countries at the end of the year. New optimism after agreement
on the Lisbon or Reform Treaty emerged and to a great extent the
successful past year was also as a result of the presidency of
our predecessors, Germany and Portugal, in which we collaborated
for the first time in the European Union in the format of a trio.
In 2008, with our Presidency, which is the first presidency of
a new member country after the enlargement of 2004, there are
two major challenges before the EU: these are ratification and
implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and strengthening of the EU's
role in the global world. Our Presidency will correspond to these
priorities. If I may say so, the bulk of the priorities have been
coordinated with Germany and Portugal in the so-called 18-month
presidency programme but we also have our six-month special programme
of the Slovenian Presidency and the priorities in our programme
are: the future of the European Union and timely ratification
and implementation of the Reform Treaty; a successful launching
of the new Lisbon Strategy cycle; a move forward on addressing
climate and energy issues; a strengthening of the European perspective
on the Western Balkans, which will probably be one of the most
prominent priorities during our Presidency; and the last one is
the promotion of intercultural dialogue. May I briefly reflect
on these priorities? The future of the European Union. After the
signing of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2007, the main task will
be for the Member States to pursue efficiently and complete the
ratification processes and the aim is for the Treaty to enter
into force before the elections of the European Parliament in
2009. Why is this important? It is important because the Treaty
itself is the basis for the EU to face new challenges. Having
reached an agreement on the future of the institutional framework,
the Union stands ready to face today's major challenges and to
deliver the agenda of the European Union. While we are debating
here, the debate in the Slovenian Parliament is going on right
now on the ratification of the Treaty and it may possibly be ratified
today, so we would be the second in the European Union to ratify
it. We consider it also a good signal for the other member countries
to ratify it since we expect that the majority of ratifications
will be implemented in the first half of 2008. Again, the aim
is for the Treaty to enter into force before the parliamentary
election in 2009. The second priority is the second cycle of the
Lisbon Strategy. The three-year cycle of the renewed Lisbon Strategy
will probably start at the Spring European Council and our main
task here will be a successful Spring European Council, which
is traditionally a council devoted to economic affairs, timely
adoption of the integrated guidelines for the growth in jobs at
the Spring Council, probably as a package or at least we wish
to see them as a package because this will enable Member States
to implement even more vigorously the reforms needed through the
national reform programmes. We believe that the renewed Lisbon
Strategy is working, is starting to deliver and that no radical
changes of the strategy or process are needed. The very key to
success is consistent continuation of the process, keeping the
momentum and implementation of the national reform programmes.
However, we will focus on the main priorities of the Lisbon Strategy
in the fields of knowledge, research, innovation, creativity,
development of a competitive business environment, development
of human capital and adaptation of labour markets as well as energy
and climate change. For example, in the area of innovation and
creativity, special emphases will be given to the use of knowledge
and development of the EU Research Area, to following the work
on the setting up of the European Institute of Technology and
joint technology initiatives for better cooperation between research
and business. In the field of entrepreneurship, the emphasis will
be on the small- and medium-sized enterprises, their growth and
ability to access financing. Important fields will also be the
internal market, better regulation with a reduction of administrative
burdens and intellectual property rights. We will also continue
with activities for improving the stability of financial markets.
Slovenia will also place attention on the adaptation of the labour
market, particularly for the common "flexicurity" principles,
further discussion on modernising the European social model and
demographic changes. On the climate change and energy priorities,
as you know the Commission launched its climate change energy
package on 23 January. It will be dealing with the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions, a review of emission trading schemes
and renewables and we expect comprehensive complex and very difficult
negotiations. This package will probably be tackled by two European
Councils, the first in 2008 and we hope that all Member States
will be ready for constructive cooperation and decisive action.
Slovenia would favour an early agreement on the package, probably
towards the end of 2008 or in the first months of 2009 at the
latest, since this would put the EU in a very strong position
with its international partners in the debate on the post-Kyoto
arrangement which will go on in 2009 in Copenhagen. The Slovenian
Presidency will also continue the work on the EU energy policy
dossier, meaning the liberalisation of the gas and electricity
internal market, adoption of an action plan on the Strategic Energy
Technology Plan regarding external energy policies. At the March
European Council, the report of the High Representative for the
CFSP and the European Commission on the impact of climate change
on international security is also expected and we will use that
as a basis for the EU policy measures proposals. The fourth priority
is the European future of the Western Balkans. As you know, enlargement
has been one of the most successful EU policies and stability
of the Western Balkans is of crucial importance for the security
and prosperity of the entire Union. Therefore development of the
European perspective for the Western Balkans should remain a central
feature on our agenda and priorities in this field will be: re-affirmation
and refreshment of the 2003 Thessaloniki agenda and Salzburg 2006;
possible conclusion of the network of SAAs, Stabilisation and
Association Agreements; consequently strengthening the regional
cooperation in several areas; gradual liberalisation of visa regimes,
energy, transport, research and development and the fight against
organised crime. We will have an informal foreign ministers' meeting
in the form of "Gymnich" in March in Brdo where we will
discuss the European Commission communication on Western Balkans
progress and we expect that the Western Balkans will once again
be very firmly on the EU agenda. In that light the Kosovo question
will be very interesting; the future status of Kosovo as well
as the management of the post-status process. The European Union
will need to assume a leading role here and we must try to preserve
predominantly EU unity in combination with regional stability.
The bases for the Presidency's work are the conclusions from the
December European Council and I am sure you are familiar with
them. The last priority will be intercultural dialogue. It is
the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. This dialogue is
predominantly meant to take place in the member countries of the
European Union. It is the foundation of the co-existence of all
European citizens and different ethnic, cultural and social groups
in the member countries. It is important to present the value
of intercultural dialogue and multilingualism among the EU citizens
and European public at large and to incorporate the positive experience
of this year into the future EU policies, which means that we
would like to see this dialogue limited not just to one year but
probably this intercultural dialogue should be a long-term, ongoing
activity of the European Union. Alongside the intercultural dialogue
in the member countries, we would like to broaden it also to the
countries of the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean and a special
contribution of Slovenia in that light would be an initiative
to establish a Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia, close
to the city of Piran. There are several other priorities. I am
sure that you will raise them in your questions. What we will
focus on also are EU external relations. We will convene four
summits: a summit with the United States, probably in June in
Slovenia; with Russia, in Russia after the presidential elections;
with Japan, in Japan. The largest one will be the fifth EU, Latin
American and Caribbean countries' summit in Peru which will be
devoted predominantly to two issues: one is the social agenda,
poverty, inequality and exclusion; and the other one is sustainable
development, comprising environment, climate change and energy.
Emphasis should be on both dimensions of the European neighbourhood
policy, this is on the eastern dimension of neighbours of the
European Union and the Mediterranean neighbours with particular
interest in the Black Sea Synergy Initiative and the Barcelona
Process of course. We will be dealing with regional security questions
and, in addition to the Western Balkans and Kosovo, the Middle
East will be of importance and the post-Annapolis Process, the
Iran dossier and Asia and Africa, with follow-up from the EU Africa
Summit under the Portuguese Presidency. On the development cooperation
agenda, in the focus will be the millennium development goals
and special emphasis will be on women and children in armed conflicts.
The European Security and Defence Policy, based on effective multilateralism,
focuses probably on two EU missions in Chad and Kosovo. Briefly,
that is everything I have to say to you. Once again, thank you
very much for giving me the opportunity to present Slovenian priorities
here in front of your Committee.
Chairman: Well thank you for that very
comprehensive recital of your priorities. You have dealt quite
extensively with one or two of the issues that we were going to
raise so members of the Committee will no doubt want to ask you
some supplementary questions on some of these areas that you have
mentioned. I am not going to go into the Kosovo question again
at this stage but it may come up in relation to Serbia. I would
like, if I may, to ask Lord Roper if he would like to ask the
next question.
Q62 Lord Roper: The General Affairs
and External Relations Council discussed the question of the Stabilisation
and Association Agreement with Serbia at its meeting yesterday
and it decided not to accelerate the signature of that agreement.
I wonder whether you could tell us what the Slovenian Presidency
strategy vis-a"-vis Serbia and its road towards EU membership
is likely to be and in particular, apart from the SAA, whether
any initiative will be taken perhaps this week, even before the
election, in connection with the facilitation of visas and other
matters?
Mr Mirošič: First, I would say
that we have two aims here in the Western Balkans. As I mentioned,
one is the EU perspective for the whole Western Balkans region.
We would like to bring the Western Balkans onto the agenda of
the European Union once again, predominantly because of the events
that are going on right now in that area, including the Kosovo
question. The Kosovo question basis will be the European Council
conclusions for December 2007. Regarding Serbia, you know that
the Presidency strives for a positive political signal towards
Serbia. Serbia is an important country and its future is in the
European Union. Serbia is about to have elections, it is up to
the Serbian people to elect the president but of course the interest
of the European Union is for forces that will carry out further
reforms and that are pro-European. Serbia has to comply with the
conditionalities and one of them is the ICTY. The reality of yesterday's
GAERC was that some other member countries thought that these
conditionalities should be met in full. What we managed was to
have the unity of the European Union send a very positive signal
toward Serbia before the election. As you know, we sent a positive
message with an invitation from the European Union to sign a political
agreement on cooperation with Serbia. We hope that Serbia will
respond positively on 7 February, that is after the election in
Serbia, and this shows the readiness of the European Union to
work closely with Serbia regarding its future in several areas:
that is to strengthen the political dialogue with Serbia; to strengthen
the free trade and economic relations with Serbia; and to work
on the visa resolution for Serbia. What is particularly important
is to work further in the education field, in the Erasmus Mundus
programme and this is a further step we would like to see to bring
Serbia closer to the European Union. The stabilisation and association
process is the best tool to bring Serbia closer to the EU and
we hope that Serbia will satisfy the conditions as soon as they
can and sign this agreement. In the meantime, this is a positive
message from the European Union to Serbia. We also set up a taskforce
which will be dealing with the relations between Serbia and the
Union, Serbian cooperation with ICTY and exploring ways for Serbia
to come as fast as possible to the European GAERC. In fact we
have had a visa facilitation agreement with Western Balkan countries
since 1 January and the next stage, to which the Presidency is
very committed, is for the Commission to launch their dialogue
with Serbia at the end of this month, on 30 January, regarding
the visa operation for Serbia. Serbia has always been a European
country and what is particularly important is that people who
feel part of Europe have possibilities to communicate with the
European member countries to which they naturally belong.
Chairman: Let us move on then, still
on enlargement, to Croatia.
Q63 Lord Dykes: In your presidency
briefing document on page five, paragraph two, you refer to enlargement
negotiations and the discussion continuing during the Slovenian
Presidency; obviously the two mentioned are Croatia, a much smaller
place, and then the very special situation of the future of Turkish
membership, depending on what happens. We had a Committee session
on 1 May last year when His Excellency, the Croatian Ambassador
gave evidence. He actually said in a very fitting comment "We
really do look forward to the Slovenian Presidency. It is always
good to have a friend in the Presidency". So obviously it
sounds as though relations are pretty good between the two countries.
Can you bring us up to date on Slovenia's attitude towards future
Croatian membership and how that is proceeding?
Mr Mirošič: First, I would say
that Slovenia and Croatia are friendly countries. We have never
fought a war between ourselves in history and we strongly support
Croatia on the path towards the European Union. It is one of our
most important trading partners as well. Croatia's future is definitely
in the European Union and we will try to make progress in the
negotiation process with Croatia but many things will depend,
of course, on the Croatian side and the Croatian Government. For
example, in the fields of judicial and administrative reforms,
the fight against corruption, minority rights, refugee return
are all tasks for the Croatian Government because candidate countries
that are negotiating should meet all the criteria or conditionalities
and these are the conclusions from the European Council December
2006. Further, I have to say that Slovenia does not want to mix
the bilateral problems with the European Union negotiations on
Croatia, but Croatia has to make more effort towards good neighbourly
relations and resolving bilateral problems with all its neighbouring
countries and this refers also to the border issues. Once again,
Slovenia does not want to mix bilateral border issues with EU
negotiations. Sometime in the summer we had the informal agreement
in principle of the prime minister to think about, to refer these
border questions to the third party, but unfortunately something
not very pleasant for Slovenia, for the EU and for Croatia happened
in the meantime and this was the implementation of the Croatian
fishery and ecological protection zone. Why was this not very
pleasant? Because Croatia had committed itself in 2004 and signed
in the presence of the European Commission, the agreement between
Croatia, Slovenia and Italy that this zone would not be implemented
for EU member countries pending a mutually agreed solution. This
was then incorporated into the June 2004 European Council conclusions
and this was a part of the negotiating framework for Croatia as
well. Despite this European commitment, Croatia unfortunately
implemented the zone on 1 January 2008 and this caused quite a
lot of problems, not problems between Slovenia and Croatia, but
a problem between the EU now and Croatia and the dialogue is going
on between the European Commission and Croatia. Slovenia—and
probably Italy but I can only speak for Slovenia—is willing
to have further dialogue on the topic, but Croatia first has to
fulfil the agreement from 2004. That means that it has to erase
the validity of the zone so that we can start the talks according
to the agreement we reached in 2004. Do not forget that a condition
of this agreement in 2004 was that Croatia would obtain the candidate
status and, unfortunately, I have to say that sometimes we have
a problem with credibility here because a signed agreement has
to be respected, particularly if a candidate country would like
to fulfil European Union commitments. I will repeat once again,
Croatia is a good neighbour, we support Croatia, we hope that
the Croatian Government will remove that particular obstacle that
is in the way and that the Croatian Government will fulfil all
the needed reforms so that Croatia will swiftly become a member
of the European Union.
Chairman: Thank you very much. The Ambassador
has told us in some detail about what he is planning to do on
the Lisbon Strategy. If Lord Harrison and Lord Wade have some
supplementaries they would like to put on this, please do go ahead.
Q64 Lord Harrison: Ambassador, you
mentioned the Spring European Council and that the second cycle
of the Lisbon Strategy will be initiated, but does that not imply
that the first cycle was not as entirely successful as the Presidency
has said in terms of developing jobs and being successful? I wonder
in your analysis what it was you thought was less successful the
first time which it is then desirable to have in that second cycle.
With respect to the four priorities that you set, could you give
me some good examples within the period of the six months of the
Slovenian Presidency, how a small business might expect an improvement
in the business environment or in the research and development
that might aid and abet such small businesses to be successful
within the single market and therefore demonstrate that the Lisbon
Strategy is successful?
Mr Mirošič: We see the first cycle
of the Lisbon Strategy as a successful one and that was the report
of the European Commission as well. The strategic report on the
Lisbon Strategy issued in December 2007 reports a success achieved
at the EU level and the EU average economic growth reached 2.9%
in 2007. In the last two years, almost 6.5 million new jobs have
been created with the prospect of another five million to be reached
by 2009. Unemployment, again EU average, is expected to fall to
under 7% which is the lowest level since the mid-1980s and the
employment rate is currently at 66% and is moving in the direction
of the overall Lisbon target, which is 70%. All the above-mentioned
success is not just cyclical. It is also due to the structural
changes that countries completed according to their national programmes
to carry out Lisbon reforms. At the beginning the Lisbon Strategy
was to have a single period up to 2010 and then it was decided
that we should have a review after each cycle of the Lisbon Strategy,
which is why we have a review now and why we have to launch a
new Lisbon cycle, predominantly because of new priorities; not
entirely new ones, because we will have to stick to those set
out, but where new emphases on the priorities will be put in which
will reflect the Slovenian Presidency's priorities. Small and
medium enterprises are one of them and their development is connected
to all the areas that are priority areas of the Lisbon Strategy:
research; development; innovation; and a very important so-called
Eurostars programme that will enable small and medium enterprises,
their financing and accessibility to the research facilities here.
It is connected also to the European Research Area, joint technology
initiatives and the European Institute of Technology. If I may
say so, in addition to that is a second area which is important
as well and this is enhancing competitiveness, the area of competitive
and business-oriented society. Here an important one is entrepreneurship
and industrial policy. In the focus of our Presidency the second
cycle that will be launched is the support for small- and medium-sized
enterprises and growth of the support in order to allow them to
develop their full potential. As I already mentioned, this is
the potential predominantly to be connected with the Research
Area, better coordination between the small and medium enterprises
and the Research Area. I do not know whether you are aware that
the French have launched another initiative. This is to focus
the legislation at the European level on the small- and medium-sized
enterprises and this legislation would regulate government procurement
following the American pattern. I mentioned Eurostars for the
small- and medium-sized enterprises, but we shall focus on the
financing of the SMEs; this is venture capital and access to clusters
as one of the means of access to the research institutions, as
I already mentioned, and better regulation is connected to the
SMEs. You will be aware that there is a 25% reduction in regulation
at the EU level and that will be the focus here.
The Committee suspended from 4.53pm to 5.00pm
for a division in the House.
Q65 Baroness Howarth of Breckland: I
want to talk about the priority you have for intercultural dialogue.
You obviously see this as extremely important and particularly
during your Presidency you have the European Year of Intercultural
Dialogue. I was interested in what you said about wishing to continue
it, because many of us see that as part of what should be intrinsic
in the European Union. How would you see that being embedded?
What plans does the Slovenian Presidency have for EU action in
this area? As you talked quite a lot about the Western Balkans
and your priority there, how does the Presidency intend to promote
intercultural dialogue with them in particular? Will your initiatives
be complementary to and coordinated with the United Nations?
Mr Mirošič: Intercultural dialogue.
The idea behind this is promotional dialogue between cultures,
beliefs and traditions and it is focused predominantly on the
different cultural, religious, ethnic and other groups in the
societies of the member countries. That was the original idea.
That is why it is called the European Year of the Intercultural
Dialogue because this is the year that the European Commission
will, together with the member countries, be very active on this.
It is the Presidency's idea to broaden it to the Western Balkans.
In that light, we set up a special Centre for European Perspective,
which is a non-governmental organisation in Slovenia. Together
with the Centre for European Perspective, we have already convened
and we will convene a number of conferences which will tackle
this intercultural dialogue, for example, Inter-ethnic and
Inter-religious Relationships in Kosovo building bridges of
understanding and collaboration. The next conference will be Intercultural
Dialogue and Democracy Spreading. Then there will be a seminar
on Muslims and Citizens of the West in February in Ljubljana
and there will be a formal meeting of the representatives of the
European cultural focal points in Ljubljana on the topic of Intercultural
Dialogue between South-east Europe and the European Union.
Why Western Balkans? Because the Western Balkans is a particularly
sensitive area with different cultures and the coherence of different
cultures in the area. So co-existence and cooperation in diversity
is the key element for the stabilisation of the area but not just
for the stabilisation, it is also very important in the fight
against organised crime and the fight against terrorism as well
and that is why the Presidency interlinked the Western Balkans
with the European Year of the Intercultural Dialogue. Every country
has a national strategy for the intercultural drive, including
Britain; Britain has some projects as well. There will be a multitude
of events, projects, people-to-people contacts, workshops that
will go on in member countries. The idea is to engage predominantly
non-governmental organisations and civic society. We will convene
a lot of events in Slovenia: for example, an international conference,
Intercultural Dialogue as a Basic EU Value that was in
Ljubljana starting the Year of the European Intercultural Dialogue;
there will be a conference, Europe, Wars and Humanism in the
21st century in April in Ljubljana; then a conference Foreign
Policy of the EU and Culture in May in Ljubljana; a Unesco
conference Intercultural Dialogue: the Role of Education in
Slovenia, Education of the Roma Population in Europe;
then a project, Europe in the School, which is co-financed
with the European Commission; then a youth project, Creative
Thinking. Then there will be different European projects:
Alter Ego; radio content; intercultural dialogue; Project
Stranger; a lot of activities going on focused on the mobility
of the researchers as well and artists. The European Commission
last year named 15 ambassadors for the European Year of Intercultural
Dialogue, so they are European ambassadors to boost this dialogue
in the member countries. Of course the Presidency closely coordinates
its activities with the relevant European, international and also
global actors, for example, with Unesco in the framework of European-Arab
Dialogue on Civilisations, with the United Nations in the
framework of the initiative on alliance of civilisations and you
are aware that the first annual forum just ended on 16 January
in Madrid.
Chairman: That is a very extensive list.
Are you satisfied now that the United Nations is involved?
Q66 Baroness Howarth of Breckland: I
assume what you are saying is that you will want this coordinated
through the countries and then cascaded from the representatives
that you have at your conferences.
Mr Mirošič: Yes, the basic idea
is that the bulk of the activities is going on in the member countries;
every member country has a national strategy and that is the idea.
Q67 Lord Sewel: Very quickly on climate
change, one of the four priorities of your Presidency, it is fair
to say though an area where aspiration has run ahead of implementation,
in some areas at least. The Commission published its energy and
climate change package last Wednesday; obviously a lot of involvement
and lobbying by Member States, really about the levels of targets
for renewables. You are going to have a difficult time there.
What do you think the main issues are, and how much progress do
you think you will make? Also finally, I did notice that you said
on fishing that you want to tackle the issue of illegal, undeclared
and unregulated fishing. Best of luck. I made myself pretty unpopular
in Scotland by trying to tackle that.
Mr Mirošič: We have to tackle
it. Fish stock worldwide is going down so the European Union has
to be an important actor in that field. Regarding energy and climate
change, we welcome the presentation of the package by the Commission.
Of course now all the member countries are in the process of studying
this package. As I already mentioned, we expect very tough negotiations.
We will start a debate at all EU levels; that means all relevant
working groups, council formations, including the European Council.
What do we expect here? In the Spring European Council we would
probably adopt very general conclusions to streamline the debate
which will probably be discussed in more detail at the June European
Council. I think it would be far too pretentious to say that we
will conclude this dossier and it will be passed on to the French
Presidency with the hope not just for the member countries but
the whole European Union that the benefit of the work will be
passed by the end of 2008/early 2009. Why? Because of the role
model of the European Union in the post-Kyoto negotiations, if
we want to lead the debate, then we have to have a consensus inside
the European Union.
Q68 Lord Wade of Chorlton: What would
be your policy if Russia attempts to buy a major European energy
company? You are in charge. What are you going to do about it?
Mr Mirošič: The Presidency will
streamline the debate in the framework of the external energy
policy. As you know, we have two poles to the energy debate. One
is an internal one which is internal market debanding and all
this kind of stuff. The other one is external action and we hope
that there will be unanimity in the European Union. However, it
is very difficult to say because it is a hypothetical situation.
Our role is just to coordinate member countries but the views
on this are very different for the time being. What we will do
is to put emphasis on the debate to come out of the resolutions,
but it would be very difficult to say in advance how we would
tackle that. There is a proposal from the European Commission
and, of course, we will carry out the debate on the basis of the
European Commission proposals regarding ownership of the foreign
energy players.
Chairman: A very diplomatic answer Ambassador,
thank you very much. I would like to move on to some of the other
big issues of external border protection and legal migration.
Q69 Lord Tomlinson: May I link these
two together: external border protection, trying to prevent illegal
migration, and then look at the legal migration question as well?
Your justice and home affairs programme involves debates and broader
discussions on border security, the EU Surveillance System, entry/exit
system, registered traveller programme, all those things. What
I am particularly interested in is how the Presidency will ensure
that national parliaments and the public that we represent are
engaged in that discussion which really is of great interest to
our parliaments and our peoples. Linked with that, just a quick
word from you perhaps about how you propose to take forward the
Commission proposals on legal migration and I do not need to describe
them to you.
Mr Mirošič: No. We are looking
forward to three communications on the topics you mentioned regarding
external border protection which will be put in front of us, probably
in February, by the Commission. These are FRONTEX, the frontier
entry and exit system, border surveillance and this will also
be the basis for the discussions to be held probably at the ministerial
conference on the EU external border in March. We hope that there
will be a result from this conference with many useful recommendations
and that it will pave the way for future work, but our future
work is to prepare Council's conclusions, political guidance and,
of course, one of the tasks in the future debate will be to take
note of the opinions of the legislative institutions and this
is both European and national parliaments. The national parliaments
will be able to explain their views regarding the initiatives
probably through national parliamentary procedures and then reflecting
the debate in the Council. So national parliaments will be involved
in that.
Q70 Lord Tomlinson: Do you anticipate
that these proposals will come to national parliamentarians at
the same time as they enter into your arena for discussions?
Mr Mirošič: You know how the system
of the EU works.
Q71 Lord Tomlinson: I know how, in
the discussion on the Lisbon Treaty, we said it should work.
Mr Mirošič: It will work. The
procedure is known. The Commission presents the proposal, it is
debated by the governments and governments have to report back
to the national parliaments. In Slovenia that national parliament
has to confirm the negotiating position of the government. If
I may tackle legal immigration, this month we have launched a
discussion in the Council on both proposals, that is a blue card
and the rights of the third-country workers. We will make efforts
to finish the first reading in the Council of both directives.
We welcome the so-called blue card because this will make Europe
a more attractive working destination for highly qualified workers.
We intend to complete the first reading at the expert level by
June, drawing up a list of issues that are simple and a list of
issues that are more problematic and on such a basis probably
the next Presidency will be able to start negotiations between
the member countries. Negotiations will probably proceed in parallel.
The emphasis will probably be on the blue card because it is a
shorter one and we can conclude it faster. The main challenge
of this proposal is to find the right set of rights of third-country
workers to ensure their equal treatment and facilitate their mobility
in the labour market. We expect the majority of changes to come
here.
Q72 Chairman: I understand the Dutch
are not all that happy with the administrative procedures. Have
you had any further information on what their real problems are
with the blue card?
Mr Mirošič: Not yet. It is still
being debated.
Chairman: It probably concerns the level
of freedom given to blue-card holders to seek work and to settle
in third countries. It is an interesting idea and we will see
how it works out. Thank you very much indeed. Lord Wright of Richmond.
Q73 Lord Wright of Richmond: Ambassador,
apologies if I missed it but I do not think you mentioned civil
and criminal justice in your introduction among your many priorities.
I have read with interest the points about civil and criminal
justice on page 15 of your presidency programme. Do you have anything
you want to add to that?
Mr Mirošič: I expected the question
regarding justice because it is very important. What are the Presidency
priorities in that field? First of all, I have to say that we
had a formal meeting of the Ministers of Home Affairs and Justice
in Ljubljana on Friday and Saturday including discussion on justice
matters and judgments in absentia, maintenance obligations
and other things. However, our priorities are, first, E-Justice,
this means more effective court access. This E-Justice is a common
priority of the trio—Germany, Portugal and Slovenia—and
we will continue the work done during the Portuguese Presidency
with the aim of making this E-Justice portal efficient. The agreement
on Saturday among the justice ministers was that we will probably
launch it in the next 24 months. Then we will endeavour to create
conditions for interoperability or interlinking of the existing
electronic registers. As a matter of priority we will concentrate
on achieving progress in making videoconferencing operational
among member countries and also creating conditions for networking
of electronic registers. We hope to start preparations for the
use of information technology for the European payment procedure
as well and in June 2008 in Slovenia we will convene an IT conference
called E-Justice and E.Law to take an overview of the European
Commission priorities on E-Justice and a further proposal regarding
that one. On the side of the family law, maintenance obligation
and regulation proposal, we aim to achieve as much progress as
possible and to reach agreement on many chapters of this regulation.
We will endeavour to resolve the open questions here, in particular
the application of the regulation and the inclusion of the protocol
of applicable law into the regulation, but we expect some talks
still to go on regarding that one. On Rome III matrimonial matters
or divorce matters, we will strive to solve certain open questions
like the non-application of foreign law, conflict of law rules,
bilateral and multilateral agreements. We will endeavour to finalise
it at the June Council but one member country in particular has
problems with that one and we hope that we will have resolved
it by June. The priority will be the enforcement of in absentia
judgments and we hope that we will achieve adoption of the Act
by the end of the Presidency. I am rushing through the priorities
because of the time constraints. The future of Eurojust. We will
strive for significant progress here but of course, we will start
the discussion on harmonising the competences of the national
members of Eurojust but we are expecting some debate. Protection
of the environment through the criminal law is a very important
field. On harmonisation, states will keep their competences to
prescribe criminal sanctions here but we will start to reach political
agreement in the Council in February 2008 and we will endeavour
to adopt it in the first reading. That is it, very briefly because
of the time constraints; otherwise I could talk for hours.
Chairman: That is very helpful. I should
tell you, Ambassador, that of course, if there are other things
you would have wished to have told us in answer to our questions,
if you were to write us a letter adding any points that you were
not able to make because of time constraints, we would be happy
to publish them alongside the transcript of the evidence that
you have given.
Q74 Lord Roper: You probably know
that our Committee is preparing a report on the Lisbon Treaty
and we see that in it are a number of things that will have to
be settled before it can come into operation. I wonder whether
you can tell us what work the Presidency has undertaken to make
sure that, assuming it is ratified, everything is ready to work
on 1 January 2009?
Mr Mirošič: The first priority
is ratification; that is the priority of Slovenia. However, if
you would like to see the Treaty in force by 1 January 2009, some
preparatory work has to be done and this means very technical
preparatory work. We identified some open questions in the context
of this preparatory work. It is very, very technical work—I
repeat technical and while we are doing this, this is in accordance
with the European Council December Conclusions saying that the
technical work will start in January on the basis of a work programme
which will be presented under the authority of the incoming President
of the European Council. We have noted some technical areas that
need work and since we expected it to be a very comprehensive
process, going on for the whole of 2008, we will limit ourselves
to this many-dimensioned technical preparatory work. Permanent
representatives and legal experts have already started examining
the technical areas concerning implementation. The process will
be conducted under the direct supervision of the European Council
and within a single framework, but still, I repeat, we will limit
ourselves to very technical things.
Q75 Lord Roper: Some of the issues
connected with the development of the external action service
which may be technical are seen by some as technical but may be
seen as political by others, as the debate in the Constitutional
Committee of the European Parliament last week seems to have indicated.
Mr Mirošič: I can just say that
talks are going on regarding the external action service and I
cannot be more specific regarding that one. I understand your
question that it is also a political one but we are limiting ourselves
first to extract the issues that are of a technical nature. Talks
are going on regarding the full service and they will continue
under the next Presidency as well.
Q76 Chairman: Ambassador, you have
been very generous with your time and given us extra time and
we have managed to finish just before the division is called.
On behalf of the Committee, may I thank you for being with us
and thank you very much for all the interesting information you
have given us. It is very helpful to us to know what the Slovenian
Presideny's priorities are and it helps this Committee in planning
its work programme. We do wish your Presidency well and we are
all very conscious of the fact that you are the first of the 2004
intake to undertake this major responsibility. The country was
well chosen and we have great confidence that you will in fact
achieve a lot. No country ever achieves everything during its
Presidency, but the way you have prepared for it is very impressive
and so we wish you very, very well and have high expectations.
Thank you so much for coming.
Mr Mirošič: If I may just, My
Lord Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you very much
once again for inviting me here. Thanks for the best wishes you
have expressed; along with best wishes we shall need a little
bit of luck during our Presidency as well. I am always open to
any questions from members and I am a very close neighbour of
yours in Westminster so whenever you feel the need, I am here
for you.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed.
|
