The UK’s 2014 block opt-out decision: summary update report

Wednesday 05 Nov 2014 @ 09:25
Parliamentary Committees and Public Enquiries

As the major debate in the House of Commons approaches on whether to rejoin the European Arrest Warrant and 34 other EU police and criminal justice measures, the European Scrutiny Committee is publishing this report to provide a guide to the UK’s 2014 “block opt-out” decision and how it has been scrutinised by Parliament.

Background

Over the past 18 months the European Scrutiny Committee, Home Affairs and Justice Committees in the Commons, and the House of Lords European Union Committee, have produced a series of Reports on the issues associated with the UK’s block opt-out decision, and the decision – which has yet to be made – on which measures the UK should rejoin.

This European Scrutiny Committee Report provides a background guide to the block opt-out and an overview of the measures the Government proposes to seek to rejoin. It raises questions on the Government’s assessment of the impact of some of these measures.

The Committee also notes that getting information from the Government has been, at times, an uphill battle, and reminds the Government of one of its key recommendations– that it expects a separate motion to be tabled for each of the measures the Government wishes to rejoin.

Chairman of the Committee, Sir William Cash MP, says,

“When we published our major report on the block opt-out last November, I said that the Government had repeatedly failed in its duty to provide Parliament with timely and relevant information on this critical matter. Our Committee, along with colleagues in the Lords and on the Commons Home Affairs and Justice Committees, has made all the running in demanding – on behalf of Parliament as a whole – the information and analysis needed to enable Members to scrutinise the Government’s approach to the 2014 block opt-out decision.

“This latest Report provides Members of the House and the wider public with an up to date overview of and guide to this complex subject.

“As the vote in the House approaches we also take this opportunity to remind the Government that we have said there should be a separate motion tabled for each of the 35 measures the Government proposes to rejoin – Members have the right to a separate vote on each one because of the individual significance of some of the measures and the need for full and rigorous Parliamentary scrutiny.”

Government’s decision on the block opt-out

The Government’s decision on the block opt-out will determine the extent to which two EU institutions – the Commission and the Court of Justice – will have a role in overseeing the application in the UK of EU police and criminal justice measures agreed before the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on 1 December 2009. Whilst the significance of each of these measures will vary, it is clear that some, notably the European Arrest Warrant, raise issues concerning public safety and security as well as the protection of individual rights.

Further information

Channel website: http://www.parliament.uk/

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