2. The Programme covers the activities of developing or providing input to the development of standards, applying, assessing or monitoring standards or overseeing standard-setting processes in support of the implementation of Union policies in the field of financial reporting and auditing that are carried out by the IFRS Foundation, EFRAG or PIOB.

This Regulation should provide for the possibility of co-financing activities of certain bodies pursuing an objective forming part of and supporting Union policy in the field of developing standards, endorsing standards or supervising standard-setting processes related to financial reporting and auditing.

(Return tabled) Question No. 1155 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to the Process Working Group (PWG) (formerly the Consultative Steering Committee) for the government’s greenhouse gas regulation development for the oil and gas sector: (a) is the PWG still in operation and, if not, when did it cease to operate; (b) what is/was the membership of the PWG, including the name and the affiliation of each member; (c) what specific framework elements of a regulatory approach are/were being considered; (d) what principles under which the performance standards will be developed are/were being considered; (e) what scope and stringency of the pe ...[+++]rformance standards are/were being considered; (f) what compliance mechanisms are/were being considered; (g) what architectural approaches in the development of sub-sector performance standards are/were being considered; (h) is/was carbon pricing being considered and, if so, what are/were the specific considerations; (i) how many meetings have taken place to date and for each meeting, (i) what was the date, (ii) who was in attendance, (iii) where did the meeting occur, (iv) what was the agenda; (j) when will oil and gas sector greenhouse gas regulations be ready to publish in Canada Gazette 1, and why were they delayed from the end of 2012; and (k) when (month and year) are oil and gas regulations scheduled to come into force?

If one of the objectives of a treaty is to help develop international standards, and you begin by saying we're prepared to work with other nations under this treaty process to develop international standards but of course none of these international standards will in any way have an impact on our domestic or national standards or national discretion, don't you find that a bit contradictory?

= the relationship between European and international standardisation and its relevance to the access of European enterprises to the markets of third countries ; = whether, and under what conditions, in cases where harmonised standards are not yet available, while recognising that harmonised standards are the best guarantee of the essential health and safety requirements, alternatives might provide a degree of assurance of conformity to such essential requirements until harmonised standards are adopted ; = the special role of the public authorities, including the Commission, at the different stages of the standardisation process under the New Approach and, in this context, improvements to the mandating of the European Standards organisa ...[+++]tions to produce the necessary harmonised standards, including the review of mandates and work programmes with particular reference to the priorities to be given to work items; = whilst recognising that the search for consensus must remain the guiding principle, consideration of the scope for voting within the European Standards organisations at an earlier stage in the development of harmonised standards in support of the New Approach, where all the necessary technical elements are present but a final consensus is proving difficult to establish and is delaying the production of a standard; = the use of new technology by the European Standards organisations to provide greater and more immediate transparency on the progress being made in the preparation of harmonised standards; = the role of pre-standardisation research as a means of improving the quality of standards and the efficiency of the process.

Key outputs from the MGSA include a soon-to-be published national aquaculture research strategy defining medium to long-term research requirements — that's 5 to 20 years out — developing Scottish technical standards for fish farm equipment and associated staff training recommendations; developing standards for wellboats, including tracking, valve status and sea lice filtration; the establishment of interactions of work streams, with initial focus on improving dialogue at the local level between farmers and wild fish managers; stand ...[+++]ards for the use of cleaner fish, such as wrasse and lumpsuckers, which is a lovely name, but we can come back to that later; and for mortality reporting and disposal.