§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU Committee on Statistics relating to the trading of goods with non-member countries, the number of times and the dates on which it has met since January 2002, the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, the decisions it has made since January 2002 and the means used to communicate these decisions to the House. [110496]
§ John HealeyThe Committee on Statistics relating to the trading of goods with non-member countries does not have a fixed membership, but consists of delegates drawn from each of the 15 member states. Delegates from the 10 EU accession states attended the last meeting as active observers. The UK Government are represented by officials from HM Customs and Excise, occasionally accompanied by an official from the Office for National Statistics, depending on the agenda.
42WSince January 2002, the Committee has met five times on:
- 7 March 2002;
- 27 to 28 June 2002;
- 14 to 15 November 2002;
- 12 to 13 March 2003; and
- 25 to 26 June 2003.
Agenda items considered and decisions made by the Committee since January 2002 all relate to the implementation, interpretation and application of EC legislation dealing with the collection of extra EC trade statistics. The main items under discussion by the Committee during the period in question have been the impact of EU enlargement, actions relating to the collection, processing and dissemination of data and work programmes intended to improve data quality.
Accountability and transparency to Parliament is ensured by the regular EU scrutiny process: documents which fall within the Scrutiny Terms of Reference are deposited within Parliament along with an Explanatory Memorandum for examination by the Scrutiny Committees.
Together with member states, the Commission has been conducting a review to bring existing legislation on the conduct of comitology committees into line with Council Decision 1999/468/EC, to 'simplify the requirements for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission'. The Working Group on the Friends of Comitology is meeting later this month to discuss proposals for interim reform.
The Commission is obliged to publish an annual report on the workings of the Committees. The latest report (Com (2002) 733 final, dated 13/12/02) has been published and was deposited in the Libraries of both Houses on 10 January 2003.
The UK Government have also encouraged the Commission to produce and maintain an electronic database of every comitology committee, its agendas and recent actions, to be accessible through its website.