Undeclared Work (Reasoned Opinion)

Chris Heaton-Harris Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

I shall be very brief, because I, too, know the time limits. I prepared a great oration to last for 90 minutes, because I know the Minister loves it so much. Really, I have just two questions: first on the detail of the Government’s position and secondly on the legal base.

The first question is a fairly easy one. The Government were uncomfortable with the legal base put forward by the Commission in article 153(2)(a). I am not sure what the Government’s current position is and I would very much like to hear what the Minister has to say.

Equally, I was not quite sure from what the Minister said whether the Government’s position on subsidiarity was shifting following the clarification at Council working group level that, while participation in the proposed EU platform will be mandatory for all member states, participation in the activities of the platform will be voluntary. I am not sure that that will be the case, because in the proposed text issued by the Commission it does not appear that the national authorities’ participation in the activities of the platform could, or would, be voluntary. Article 5(1) requires that

“Each Member State shall appoint one single point of contact as a member of the Platform.”

Article 5(4) provides that

“Single points of contact shall liaise with all enforcement authorities which are involved in the prevention and/or deterrence of undeclared work regarding the activities of the Platform and guarantee their participation at the meetings and/or contribution to the activities of the Platform or its working groups if issues discussed involve their field of competence.”

It strikes me that there is a bit of an issue here, which is one of the very good reasons why we should issue a reasoned opinion. I would like the Minister’s clarification on that.

Finally, there is quite a budget attached to this platform. Europe is very good at spending money on doing these things. Personally, I do not see the value in half of this stuff, but I would very much appreciate it if the Minister clarified those two points.