Hansard

As a member of the European and External Relations Committee, I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee’s motion to amend standing orders in order better to permit the Parliament to protect Scotland’s interests in the legislative procedures of the European Union.

As is well known, the policy reach of EU legislation is extensive, and it continues to extend. Many of the EU’s directives and regulations impact either directly or indirectly on a wide range of policy issues that fall within the competence of this Parliament. It is therefore essential that we, as a Parliament, avail ourselves of every opportunity to scrutinise and, where appropriate, influence EU legislative proposals that affect Scotland’s strategic interests and impact on our legislative authority. The motion seeks to modify our standing orders to achieve that result. The context for the modification is the Parliament’s European strategy, which was agreed to in December 2010 and which sets out a new approach for early engagement and scrutiny of EU policy initiatives and legislative proposals by the Parliament and its committees.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of early engagement and how it can make a real difference. For example, last Friday, the European and External Relations Committee brought together in this Parliament the Scottish Government, the UK Government, the European Commission, the European Parliament and key stakeholders from across Scotland’s university, research and business sectors to discuss Scotland’s response to the Commission’s proposed EU horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation. That afforded us the opportunity to contribute to the on-going debate in Brussels on the future of research funding across Europe. Early engagement by the Parliament is important to ensure that Scotland is able to take full advantage of the opportunities.

The key triggers for reconsidering the way in which the Parliament handles EU business are the new provisions introduced by the 2009 Lisbon treaty that require the European Commission to strengthen the role that the principle of subsidiarity plays in determining the reach of EU law. The strengthened subsidiarity protocol is therefore important as a device to restrict the unnecessary acquisition of legislative competences at the EU level and to stem the flow of unjustified legislation from Brussels.

I have made the point in the chamber before, and I make no apologies for repeating it today, that when the EU legislates in a particular area, it is not the powers of Governments that are reduced but the legislative powers of Parliaments, including this Parliament. For that reason, we must ensure that our parliamentary procedures for handling EU business are revised to allow our views on prospective EU legislation to be properly taken into account first by the Westminster Parliament and then in Brussels by both the Commission and our members of the European Parliament.

Although the motion sets out the formal changes that are needed to allow us to play our part in subsidiarity procedure, I am delighted that many of the wider recommendations that were made in the European and External Relations Committee’s report of 2010 are being taken forward. For example, the establishment of the position of European reporter in each of our parliamentary committees has greatly improved the capacity of each committee to ensure that, collectively, the Parliament is aware of the impact of EU legislative proposals on specific subject areas suitably early.

The amendments to the standing orders will help to strengthen the Parliament’s European engagement. Key negotiations are under way in Brussels on the EU budget, reforms to the common agricultural policy and common fisheries policy, state aid, financial services reform, EU structural funds and horizon 2020, and it is vital that the Parliament’s voice is heard in those discussions. That requires a more proactive approach from the Parliament.