§ 3.2 p.m.
§ Lord Bruce of Doningtonasked Her Majesty's Government:
§ Whether they will resist that part of Draft Council Decision (COM(94) 412 final) of 17th November which gives the European Commission the right to vote, on equal terms with each member state, on decisions arrived at by the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (COMFBPS).
§ Lord InglewoodMy Lords, the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics is a group of official statisticians drawn from the 15 member states, the European Monetary Institute and the Commission. This committee advises the Commission. We do not seek to change the voting procedures which the committee has established as a means of ensuring that its advice to the Commission is clear and unambiguous. Any legislative proposals which the Commission puts forward as a result of advice from this committee is subject to normal Council voting procedures in which, of course, the Commission has no voting rights.
Lord Bruce of DonningtonMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord for his very informative reply. He will doubtless be aware that the proposed decision is in fact a proposed amendment to a decision made on 973 25th February 1991, numbered 115 of that year. Will he inform the House whether this particular item, when it came up for decision at the Council, was on the A list—that is to say, proposals which do not require anything more than a cursory examination? If that is so, who was the Minister representing Her Majesty's Government on the Council concerned? Will the Minister confirm that the existing proposal seeks to legitimise the position of the European Monetary Institute—the new organisation set up under Maastricht—on this particular committee? Is he further aware that that is unique, in that it gives for the first time the right of the Commission as a body to participate in voting with member states? Does the Minister consider that to be a desirable precedent?
§ Lord InglewoodMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his wide-ranging question. If I may, my reply will focus on the end of it. What is being proposed in this case is that there should be a committee of financial and economic statisticians from around the Community in order to advise the Commission, the European Monetary Institute and the member states on technical matters relating to statistics. Therefore, the experts from the various member states, the Commission and the European Monetary Institute have been brought together in this committee.
Bearing in mind that it is a committee of technical experts, it seems appropriate that they should be able to form a collective decision. Since the various non-member state elements have an entirely legitimate role in the compilation of these statistics, it seems to us appropriate that they should be able to vote on a decision which the committee as a whole may reach. That compares quite markedly with any situation where either official policy or legislation is being proposed. In such circumstances it seems beyond argument that it would not be proper for the Commission or the European Monetary Institute to be involved in the kind of way that might be envisaged behind the Question of the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington.
§ Baroness EllesMy Lords, does my noble friend agree that, in accordance with his reply, it is extraordinary that the committee which has been set up is an advisory committee to the Commission? Therefore, does my noble friend further agree that it is curious that the Commission should take part in a vote on a body which is meant to be advising it on certain matters? As I understood from the answer to the Question, it is an advisory body comprising a collection of statisticians from different member states who are advising the Commission. Therefore, why should the Commission be given a vote on matters which are for its advice?
§ Lord InglewoodMy Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Elles for that question. As I attempted to point out in my initial supplementary reply to the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, the purpose of this committee is to try to form a collective view on technical aspects relating to the collection of statistics. For example, since through EUROSTAT the Commission does collect these statistics, it seems appropriate that it should have an input into the collective decision of the advisory committee.
974 Perhaps I may compare it to a slightly similar domestic committee, the Retail Prices Index Advisory Committee, which comprises civil servants, academics and City figures who collectively, using their technical expertise, try to form certain views which they use to advise the Government. I believe that the important distinction here is that this is essentially a technical body rather than a wider political or administrative body.
§ Lord EatwellMy Lords, is the Minister aware, as anyone who has had to deal with official statistics will know, that his opinion that the construction of official statistics has nothing to do with policy is remarkably naive? The way in which statistics are constructed and collected has a very considerable impact on the formation of policy. Will the Minister answer the question of my noble friend Lord Bruce of Donington and inform the House whether this is the first circumstance in which the Commission has been awarded an independent vote in a committee comprising representatives of member states?
§ Lord InglewoodMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell. I know of no other instance where the Commission has been given this particular power. Having said that, I cannot think of any analogous committee.