I now come to correspondence from the Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny. The sub-committee has examined one proposal falling within the remit of the Department of Foreign Affairs, COM 2003/684, a Council regulation on the establishment of European partnerships in the framework of the stabilisation association process. This proposal seeks to establish a legal base to draw up accession partnerships for the countries participating in the stabilisation and association process, the ASP, in the western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro.
The European partnerships will build on the ASP and identify priorities for action in supporting efforts to move closer to the European Union and serve as a checklist against which progress would be measured. The sub-committee has proposed that this proposal does not warrant further scrutiny. Is the recommendation of the sub-committee agreed to? Agreed. We will now continue in private session.
The joint committee went into private session at 4.20 p.m. and adjourned at 4.27 p.m. sine die.