House of Lords EU Select Committee
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House of Lords EU Select Committee
- 1. © House of Lords 2013 © House of Lords 2013 House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union: Scrutinising EU legislation Dominique Gracia, EU Liaison Officer
- 2. © House of Lords 2013 Remit „to consider European Union documents and other matters relating to the European Union‟
- 3. © House of Lords 2013 Scrutiny? Remit does not include the word „scrutiny‟, but it is the bulk of what we do: Close consideration of EU policy, law, and activity, and the Government‟s decisions and actions related to the EU
- 4. © House of Lords 2013 EU Committee and its Sub-Committees EU Select Committee Selec t Economic and Financial Affairs A Internal Market, Infrastructure and Employment B External Affairs C Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy D Justice, Institutions and Consumer Protection E Home Affairs, Health and Education F
- 5. © House of Lords 2013 A major activity of the House • 74 Members of the House – Including former UK Ministers, European Commissioners, MEPs, senior diplomats, and people from „business‟ and „industry‟ • 25 staff from the Committee Office – Each Committee is staffed by a Clerk, Policy Analyst and Committee Assistant – The EU Liaison Officer works for the whole Committee Office
- 6. © House of Lords 2013 Meetings • Sub-Committees: once every sitting week for 1-2 hours • Select Committee: usually once every two weeks for 1- 2 hours • Evidence hearings in public, deliberation in private
- 7. © House of Lords 2013 Two main strands of the EU Committee’s work • General Scrutiny – Looking at documents from the European Commission and corresponding with the Government. – Evidence sessions and a longer letter to the Government for proposals of particular interest. • Inquiries – More detailed look at an EU policy area, or proposed EU legislation, culminating in a full report with recommendations to the Government and/or EU institutions.
- 8. © House of Lords 2013 Documents Considered • Around 900 Explanatory Memorandums on EU legislation deposited annually by the Government: – Legislative proposals (e.g. Regulations/Directives) – Non-legislative documents (e.g. Communications) – Common Foreign and Security Policy
- 9. © House of Lords 2013 Documents Considered • Every week, the Chairman of the EU Select Committee decides with the help of Legal Advisers whether to: – Clear documents from scrutiny; – Send documents to Sub-Committee for information; and – Send documents to Sub-Committee for examination • About 40% of documents referred to Sub- Committees for examination
- 10. © House of Lords 2013 The Scrutiny Reserve • No minister should give agreement in Council to any proposal for European legislation... – (a) Which is still subject to scrutiny (that is, on which the EU Committee has not completed its scrutiny); or – (b) On which the EU Committee has made a report to the House for debate, but on which the debate has not yet taken place.
- 11. © House of Lords 2013 Inquiries and Full Reports • Approximately15 a year • Recent examples – Migration – Energy Policy – Research and Innovation – Enlargement of the EU – European Banking Union
- 12. © House of Lords 2013 Inquiries: Evidence • Call for written evidence from interested parties: – Government Ministers and officials – Commission, MEPs – Stakeholders: Industry, business, academics, NGOs, etc. • Selected witnesses invited to give oral evidence • All published online
- 13. © House of Lords 2013 Inquiries: Reports • Evidence-based • Make recommendations to Government • Major reports debated and responded to by the Government in the House • Selected reports also sent to Commission for comment
- 14. © House of Lords 2013 Impact of the Committee’s work • On UK Government – the “guard dog” effect • On Commission – Innovation in Agriculture (2011) • On processes – Inter-parliamentary scrutiny of EU proposals.
- 15. © House of Lords 2013 Engagement and Resources • Information about our activities and contact details are available on the EU Committee website (www.parliament.uk/hleu). • The House of Lords also has a twitter account: @UKHouseofLords
- 16. © House of Lords 2013 Communicating our work - newsletter
- 17. © House of Lords 2013 My Contact Details Dominique Gracia EU Liaison Officer House of Lords London SW1A 0PW 0207 219 8637 +32 2283 1496 graciad@parliament.uk www.parliament.uk/lords
Editor's Notes
- Remit does not include the word ‘scrutiny’, but it is the bulk of what we do:Scrutiny involves close consideration of EU policy, law and activity. Although scrutiny is the Committee’s and not the Government’s function, the progress of Parliamentary scrutiny has implications for the Government.
- There is an ‘umbrella’ European Union Select Committee with six Sub-Committees. The European Union Select Committee has 19 Members in total, including the Chairman of each of the Sub-Committees. The Sub-Committees usually have 12 Members, although Sub-Committee C has 13 Members. Membership for the Select Committee is decided by the House of Lords Liaison Committee, made up of the leaders of the main party groups within the House of Lords. Membership for the Sub-Committees is agreed between the Select Chairman and the leaders of the main party groups. There is a Party Balance although this varies slightly (4 Con/Lab, 3 Crossbenchers, 2 LDs)
- Members are from all different walks of life. The background of EU Committee Members varies: Those from a political background: Lord Richard = Former EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Lord Jopling = Former Chief Whip in the CommonsThose from a non-political background: Lady O’Cathain = Non-Executive Director (British Airways and Tesco), Managing Director (Barbican Centre, Milk Marketing Board) Lady Valentine – currently CEO (London First) Lady Parminter – currently Vice President (RSPCA)
- Sub-Committees: once every sitting week for 1-2 hoursSelect Committee: usually once every two weeks for 1-2 hoursEvidence hearings in public, deliberation in privateAnyone can attend public evidence sessions that they are interested in, and details as to whether the session will be public or private is listed on the front page of each Committee’s website.
- General Scrutiny is the lesser known side of the Committee’s work, although it makes up a substantial amount of the Committees’ work. It involves looking at proposed legislation from the European Commission and corresponding with the Government. If the Committee is particularly interested in a piece of legislation, they may hold one or two evidence sessions on the topic. A recent example of this is Sub Committee F’s (Home Affairs) evidence sessions looking at the Tobacco Products Directive, after which they press released a substantial letter An inquiry constitutes a more detailed look at either a policy area, or a specific piece of legislation. For example, the Sub-Committee to which I am Clerk, did an inquiry which looked at the European Commission ‘Gender Directive’ which seeks to introduce quotas for the number of women on boards of Non-Executive Directors. This differed to a report published in 2010 by the Committee, which looked more generally at European Commission Impact Assessments and how they could be improved. Similarly, the Committee’s most recent report on the subject of EU Research and Innovation proposals was forward looking, and made suggestions as to how the European Commission (and Government) could change the way it engages with the private sector and specifically SMEs, to enable them to benefit from EU research funding.
- Explanatory Memorandums are documents setting out the background to a proposal and the Government’s views on it, including budgetary implications, and the outcome of any consultations, e.g. with the devolved administrations.
- Every week, the Chairman of the EU Select Committee look at the Government’s explanatory memorandums and decides with the help of Legal Advisers whether to: Clear them from scrutiny – if they are not politically significant Send to documents to Sub-Committee for information – when it is not politically significant, but may be in the future (e.g. Hints at something important coming down the road)Send documents to Sub-Committee for examination – when the Chairman considers that they are politically important and should be looked at in detail by Parliament.When documents are sent to the Sub-Committee for information or examination, they will often write to the Minister with any concerns or queries arising from the EM. This correspondence is available online, unless of a confidential nature.
- The first stage of an inquiry is the Call for written evidence from interested parties. Selected witnesses invited to give oral evidence.All evidence is published online on a rolling basis TheEU institutions are complex and can be time consuming for businesses to engage with (as the Committee heard in its recent inquiry into R&I proposals). The Committee sees its inquiry work as offering an opportunity for stakeholders, including businesses,thinktanks, and individuals, to influence the process.
- House of Lords reports are evidence-based and make recommendations to Government and/or the Commission. Most reports are debated and responded to by the Government in the House.
- The Committee aims to have impact on the UK Government, the EU institutions and Parliamentary processes: On the Government, the impact is mainly felt through the “guard dog” effect and the scrutiny reserve, but we also have impact through our reports and recommendations. The Committee aims to influence the Commission’s policies through reports, evidence sessions and correspondence and our reports. Sub Committee D (Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy) 2011 report into Innovation in Agriculture is a good example of this – the Commission’s recent proposals for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy reflect a number of recommendations in the Innovation in Agriculture report (for example, doubling funding for research in the area) Committee’s usually direct correspondence to Ministers, but Sub Committee B (Internal Market, Infrastructure, Employment) - recently wrote directly to the Commission highlighting their concerns that the EU had used too strong a legislative measure with regards to a proposal for infrastructure sharing in the area of high speed broadband. The Committee Members also attend inter-parliamentary meetings (usually hosted by the European Parliament, or other EU institutions), where they can influence discussions on policy areas or general proposals through an open discussion and debate. - Processes are typically handled through procedural discussions at interparliamentary meetings, such as COSAC, or the Speakers’ conference.
- Please also let us know if you would like to receive our monthly newsletter, which updates various stakeholders on the work of the EU Committee’s. We are always keen to expand our mailing list so that more people are aware of the work of any proposals which the Committee is due to look at related to their business (or other) area.
- Thank-you for listening. I look forward to the rest of the discussion.