Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. Mr Bibby, where would you like to direct your question to next?

Good morning, and a warm welcome to the 15th meeting in 2024 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. We have received apologies from Mark Ruskell, Meghan Gallacher and Keith Brown, and we are joined by committee substitute Kevin Stewart.

Our first agenda item is to continue to take evidence for the committee’s inquiry into the review of the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement. This morning, we will hear from two panels. Our first witnesses are from the United Kingdom domestic advisory group, or the DAG, as we usually call it. I offer a warm welcome to Sean McGuire, the chair of the DAG, and I welcome back Irene Oldfather, its vice-chair, who has engaged with us on such matters previously in this session of Parliament in her role on the Scottish advisory forum on Europe.

I note that you recently published your “2024-2025 Priorities Report”, in which you highlight emerging and on-going issues in relation to the TCA. The focus of our inquiry has largely been on trade in goods, but we are interested in other aspects as well. The DAG members identified key issues in relation to trade in goods, as well as how the TCA could operate better to facilitate trade.

We would be interested to hear your thoughts on the priorities. Perhaps we could begin with Mr McGuire.

That is helpful—thank you. I will give the final word to Léa Auffret, if she wants to come in.

Mr Stewart is next—the other Mr Stewart.

I am afraid that we lost your sound there at the end, Tanja. I do not know whether you can hear us. It was just the last few seconds of what you said that we lost. We will move on to Léa Auffret and then, hopefully, we will be able to get back to you with questions.

I welcome witnesses from the EU domestic advisory group. Luísa Santos is chair of the group, and Tanja Buzek and Léa Auffret are vice-chairs. I will open the questions.

In our inquiry, we have heard from various businesses and stakeholders based in the UK about the challenges of trading with the EU post-Brexit. I would be interested in hearing the perspectives of EU businesses and civil society on how the TCA has been operating from their side. Have you seen any changes following the introduction of the border controls, as laid out in the Windsor agreement? What are your priorities for developing the current scope of the TCA to better facilitate trade between the EU and the UK?

We can begin with Luísa Santos, please.

Thank you for that. Does Tanja Buzek or Léa Auffret want to come in on that?

Thank you very much for those opening remarks and for your report, which is included in our papers.

For this morning’s meeting, we obviously have our European hats on, but the committee’s remit also includes culture, and your report talks about the movement of workers, particularly those in the culture sector. I appreciate that, as Mr McGuire mentioned, you are in a regulated period during the election, but I want to ask about the EU’s offer in relation to the youth mobility exchange. Does the DAG have a position on that, given that the two main parties in the UK have said no to the offer? With a new Government in the UK and a new Government forming in Europe after the elections, will there be opportunities for some of those issues to be revisited?

I have a question on the back of Alexander Stewart’s questions. On human rights, I appreciate everything that you have said, but we were in the position of the UK Government talking about withdrawing from the United Nations and from the European convention on human rights in order to implement the deportation of migrants to Rwanda. Were that to have gone ahead, would that have been a deal breaker in terms of human rights co-operation with the EU?

We will maybe seize that opportunity to take that up with you then.

My other question is about consumer rights, which Irene Oldfather mentioned earlier. This is child safety week in the UK, and, at last night’s meeting of the cross-party group on accident prevention and safety awareness, the Child Accident Prevention Trust delivered a presentation, and trading standards officers showed us examples of some of the goods that are available in online marketplaces that do not meet the standards that we would expect in the UK and Europe. Given that British standards remain part of the broad European approach, do you think that there are opportunities to strengthen some of the consumer aspects of what is proposed, and to strengthen regulation on issues such as artificial intelligence?