I wrote to you on 19 July 2007[29] informing you that this proposed regulation would be subject to the conciliation process, as it had not been possible to find an acceptable compromise with the European Parliament on those issues which had most divided the Parliament and the Council. Your Committee will wish to be aware that on 16 January 2008 the Conciliation Committee formally approved a joint text on a replacement for EC Regulation 2320/2002 which established common rules in the field of Civil aviation security. This is expected to be formally adopted by the Council and European Parliament by the end of March 2008.

The present EU Framework regulation on aviation security (2320/02) was developed as an urgent initiative immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, in retrospect certain of its elements have proved inconsistent or unclear, and the level of detail was felt inappropriate for a document which does not have confidential status. For these reasons the European Commission, in September 2005, proposed a replacement Regulation to take the sensitive material out of the public domain and clear up points which have proved open to interpretation.

  However, the European Parliament put forward a number of amendments to the proposal which gave the UK and other Member States major difficulties. The Council's rejection of these precipitated the formal conciliation process to try to reach agreement between the two sides. One area of disagreement was over the Eutropean Parliament's desire to see Member States placed under an obligation to fund part of the cost of implementing the security measures. The European Parliament have stepped back from this desire and have agreed that each Member State is free to decide how security costs should be met. However, during this year the Commission will be undertaking a study of the issues surrounding security charging, in particular transparency, cost-relatedness and competition effects, and "if appropriate" it may then bring forward legislative proposals.

  The other sticking point was the European Parliament's desire to have a greater say in the development of security policy. They sought to achieve this through the new form of comitology known as Regulatory Procedure With Scrutiny (RPWS) which gives the European Parliament the right of veto, on specific and limited grounds, over the proposals made by the Commission. This would be in circumstances where the Commission is exercising its powers delegated to it to make measures that either amend or supplement EU legislation.

  The UK's main concern on this point was that MEPs do not have access to intelligence reporting and so cannot judge the proportionality or otherwise of any proposed comitology measure. A way forward, however, was found and a method agreed for approving future security standards. This takes the form of "common basic standards" to be agreed in co-decision and laid down in the Annex to the new Framework Regulation. These standards would be public, and therefore necessarily cast in general terms. Secondly, "general measures" designed to supplement these common basic standards will be adopted in "intermediate" regulation, using the RPWS precedure. These too will be published and will also need to be cast in more general terms. Lastly there will be "detailed measures" for implementing these "general measures" which will be under the "normal" comitology procedure, i.e. determined by the Commission and Member States. The extent to which all, or part, of each of these measures will be published will be dealt with on a case by case basis in accordance with the terms of confidentiality set out in the regulation and will specifically take into account the sensitive nature of the information.

  It is not possible to fully predict whether this method will, in practice, operate as described above, as RPWS has not been used in this way before. Overall, however, the Government is content with the compromise achvieved in conciliation, and welcomes this new regulation.

  I would, of course, be happy to send you an Explanatory Memorandum on the approved Joint Text when it is issued, if your Committee would find it helpful.

14 February 2008