Hansard

As convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee, it is a pleasure for me to open the debate on the European Commission's work programme for 2004. The debate is the first one in the new parliamentary session in which the committee has been involved and it presents my first opportunity to open a debate for the committee.

Given that it is so early in the year, the committee felt that it was appropriate that we debate the European Union and, specifically, the European Commission's work programme for 2004 and its relevance to Scotland. I appreciate that the debate's title is not the most glamorous, but I assure members that the debate is important.

We are debating the issue because we must highlight to Parliament, the Scottish Executive and the nation generally many of the key issues that will be on the Commission's agenda in 2004. We hope to provide early warning of many of the issues that Europe will be taking forward, so that the parliamentary committees, MSPs and everyone else can investigate the impact of each proposal on Scotland and ensure that Scotland's interests are being taken into account and promoted. Of course, the committee is also keen to raise the profile of European issues in the Parliament. Unfortunately, it is difficult nowadays to get the media interested in European issues. I understand that there is now only one correspondent based in Brussels to represent the Scottish media corps.

It is important that our committee and other committees hold the respective ministers to account on European matters. Earlier this week I met Jimmy Hood MP, the chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee in the House of Commons, and the chairs of other European committees throughout the United Kingdom to discuss the work of our committees. The House of Commons has a motto that states that good scrutiny leads to good government. I believe that all European committees throughout the UK, and specifically the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee, want to abide by that motto.

I hope that the debate on the EC's work programme will become an annual event that the Scottish Executive will sponsor, so that we can help to ensure that Parliament remains focused on EU matters. After all, 80 per cent of the legislative work for which the Scottish Parliament has responsibility is influenced by Europe. The recent Queen's speech in the House of Commons barely mentioned any legislation that was relevant to Scotland, but much legislation comes from Europe directly to the Scottish Parliament. The most recent time that the European and External Relations Committee counted, we found that 1,200 items in a year had come from Brussels to the Scottish Parliament. All committees will notice an increasing number of items on their agendas that relate to Europe. I hope that each committee will move towards regularly placing Europe on its agenda. Some committees, such as the Environment and Rural Development Committee, have made progress on that.

It is in the Parliament's interests to ensure that the EU adheres to the principle of subsidiarity and that the Commission directly consults Parliament. The Scottish Executive jointly submitted, with the UK Government, a paper on Europe to the convention on the future of Europe that argued that the Commission should directly consult the Scottish Parliament. Unfortunately, I understand that the Commission is not adopting that stance; it wants simply to consult the Committee of the Regions. I ask the minister, if he has the opportunity, to respond on that issue during the debate. Our committee—and, I am sure, all parties in the Parliament—wishes the Scottish Parliament to be consulted directly by the European Commission, which is what we all called for previously.

The EC will produce extended impact assessments in 2004, which will analyse not only the economic, social, environmental and regulatory impact of European legislation, but subsidiarity and proportionality in European legislation. I believe that everyone in the Scottish Parliament would welcome that and would want to pay close attention to it to ensure that EU legislation is produced at the most appropriate level.

I turn to what will happen in 2004, which will be an historic year for Europe and the EU. There will be enlargement of the EU on 1 May, when we will welcome 10 new member states—I will return to that issue. The European elections are in June and I am sure that we all want to encourage the people of Scotland to turn out in that election. A new Commission will be appointed later this year when the Prodi Commission retires, and new commissioners will be appointed. Perhaps the minister will say whether there are moves to propose names from Scotland for the new UK commissioners. We may also have the continuation of the intergovernmental conference and the adoption of a new EU constitution, should that come back on to the agenda. If it does not, Europe will have to revert to the Treaty of Nice.

The EC's programme for 2004 will attempt to achieve three key priorities: a stable European Union, stable growth within the EU and the accession of new states to the EU. To help to achieve those objectives, nearly 80 items of legislation or initiatives with huge relevance to Scotland will be produced in 2004. One example is a new financial framework for 2007-13, which will decide where all the money will go. Billions of euros will be at stake for rural communities, regional development, research and so on, so the framework will be critically important for Scotland. The European and External Relations Committee is investigating the impact on regional funding, given the UK Government's recent consultation on repatriating that funding to the UK.

A new external border management agency, which will help to manage immigration to the EU, will be created in 2004. That has a resonance for the First Minister's fresh talent initiative, which is designed to attract new people to Scotland—provided, of course, that the UK Government believes that we in Scotland will understand the immigrants' accents.

A green paper on public-private partnerships will be produced in 2004. Again, that issue is to the fore of political debate in Scotland—indeed, it is front-page news today. There will also be a consultation on the working time directive. Specifically, there will be a review of the opt-out that the UK Government secured for workers in the UK, who work longer hours than anyone else in Europe. If the review led to the removal of the opt-out, it would have implications for the Scottish health service and other sectors in Scotland. Europe will also continue to develop the reform of the common agricultural policy and the cod recovery plans, which are vital to our farmers and fishermen respectively.

I note that Alasdair Morgan, the convener of the Enterprise and Culture Committee, is in the chamber. He will be interested to know that the Commission hopes to achieve in 2004 its aim of developing the knowledge economy in Europe, which means that it wants to reach a spending target of 3 per cent of Europe's gross domestic product on research and development, which has ramifications for the Scottish economy. Members of the Health Committee will know that the launch of a health card is on the agenda, which will give people easier access to health benefits in EU countries. There is also an aim to ensure greater uptake of environmental technologies, which is relevant to next week's debate in the chamber on the national waste plan.

EU enlargement will dominate the European agenda in 2004. On 1 May, eight new members from central and eastern Europe will join the EU: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Two countries from the Mediterranean will also join: Malta and Cyprus. It seems only a few years ago that the prospect of such countries joining the EU appeared to be a pipe dream. However, we are now only a few months away from that dream becoming reality. I am sure that we all welcome the appointment last week of an Estonian honorary consul to Scotland and hope that other states follow suit.

The Commission is committed in 2004 to pursuing negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania, which are likely to join the EU in 2007. It is also committed to producing a recommendation later in 2004 on the possibility of Turkey joining the EU, as well as preparing an opinion on Croatia's application to join the EU.

It is hoped that the 10 new members of the EU in 2004 will benefit soon from the EU's prosperity and stability. There will be a huge increase of up to 453 million citizens in the EU's population and a huge increase in the EU's land area. Enlargement will enrich Europe's history and culture, and it is anticipated that Europe's influence in the wider world will increase. It is important that Scotland joins the enlargement celebrations, which the European and External Relations Committee has discussed. The Irish are hosting a day of welcome on which all European heads of state and people from other organisations will be invited to Dublin. Perhaps the minister could indicate in his speech whether Scotland will be represented at that celebration. Our committee is certainly working on a number of initiatives to ensure that Scotland has celebrations at home to welcome the new member states into the EU.

The previous European Committee published a report in 2002 in which five challenges and opportunities arising from EU enlargement were identified. They were: the impact on trade; the impact on Scotland's share of European funds and subsidies; the impact on labour markets and social policy; the impact on freedom, security and justice; and the impact on cultural, educational and other issues.

It is clear that enlargement offers Scotland opportunities. For example, there will be a bigger market for our businesses. In my constituency a company that makes pods in the form of bathroom units for hotel developments throughout Europe is opening its second factory in the Czech Republic, because it wants access to the new markets.

There will also be challenges, as there will be more economic competition. It will be cheaper for companies from non-EU countries to locate elsewhere in Europe and there will be competition for jobs and investments. An excellent booklet produced by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry details all the benefits, challenges and opportunities of enlargement for Scotland and provides background on all the new member states.

The European and External Relations Committee urged Scottish ministers to lead parallel trade missions to the new countries when they visit them on other, political business. It is unfortunate that after making a bright start in relation to the Czech Republic, the Executive does not seem to have planned any more visits.