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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Newby on 6 May (WA 314), what is their estimate of the average additional weekly cost of food to United Kingdom families arising from membership of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Lord De Mauley

As stated in the previous response to WA 314, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) calculates the annual monetary value of gross transfers from EU consumers arising from policies underpinning the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The OECD estimates that EU consumers faced higher food prices equivalent to approximately €16 billion in 2012. This equates to 4% of consumption expenditure on agricultural commodities (at farm gate prices), and compares to an average 71% in the late 1980s.

Agricultural commodity prices are a key factor in determining food retail prices but other factors are also important, such as energy prices and exchange rates. Therefore the impact of CAP on consumers’ weekly cost of food will be less than the 4% figure reported above.

There is no agreed OECD methodology to disaggregate estimates to individual EU member states, so these figures are not available at the UK level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Prime Minister’s comments in Brussels on 27 May that Brussels was too big and too busy” indicate that they intend to oppose any further expansion of the European Union.”

Baroness Warsi

The Prime Minister, my Rt. Hon Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron)’s comment was that Brussels is “too big and too bossy”. He was referring to the need for the EU to reform to become less interfering and more competitive, flexible and democratically accountable. He was not pronouncing on the EU’s territorial size.

The UK continues to be a strong supporter of enlargement based on firm but fair conditionality, focussing on key concerns shared by many Member States, particularly around the rule of law. Enlargement has proved a huge driver of peace, prosperity and progress across our continent.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what rules currently govern the disclosure of European Union information; and whether any past or present rule, or any proposed rule, bans disclosure of information disadvantageous to the European Union.

Lord Faulks

Access to documents held by the European Union (EU) is governed by Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (the Regulation), which provides a public right of access to documents held by these three institutions. The Regulation has also been extended to further EU institutions through other instruments. Information relating to the EU may also be requested from UK public authorities under domestic information rights legislation, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Neither the Regulation nor domestic legislation contain provisions which prohibit the disclosure of information simply because its release would be disadvantageous to the EU, and there are no plans to introduce such a measure. However, both the Regulation and domestic legislation provide a range of exemptions, often subject to a public interest test, which permit bodies subject to them to withhold genuinely sensitive information from disclosure where release would undermine legitimate interests specified in that legislation. These include, for example, exemptions which may be relied upon to protect international relations, commercial interests or the decision-making processes for making EU legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the dismissal of the United Kingdom’s challenge to the proposed financial transaction tax at the European Court of Justice, whether they have any plans to re-examine the extent of European Union competence in respect of United Kingdom taxation; and whether they consider that the application of such a tax would trigger a referendum under the terms of the European Union Act 2011.

Lord Deighton

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruling on 30 April deemed the UK challenge to the FTT was premature, but confirmed that the Government could challenge a future FTT Implementing Directive.

The introduction of the FTT under the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure would not be a relevant transfer of sovereignty or power for the purpose of the “referendum lock” in the UK’s EU Referendum Act.

The extent of European Union competence in respect of United Kingdom taxation was set out in the Balance of Competences Review, published 22 July 2013, and available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/taxation-report-review-of-the-balance-of-competences.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that the European Union Fourth Railway Package is likely to preclude nationalisation or re-nationalisation of national railways as a whole or in part.

Baroness Kramer

The proposals published by the European Commission on 30 January 2013 would, if adopted, strengthen requirements for the formal separation of infrastructure manager and train operator responsibilities. The proposals make no assumption about the status of the infrastructure manager. They do, however, require the competitive tendering of rail public service contracts in most circumstances.

There is no particular bar on public companies competing for such tenders, and exemptions to tendering are proposed for small networks and in emergency situations.

The Italian Council Presidency (Jul-Dec 2014) intends to start Member State level Working Groups about the market opening proposals in July. As these proposals are still under discussion it is too early to say what we think the effect is likely to be.