Hansard

Once again, this has been a helpful and useful debate prior to the end-of-year bun fight that takes place in Brussels every December. These annual fisheries negotiations are so important to the future of our coastal economies, our seafood sector and the wider fishing industry.

I feel the weight on my shoulders as I head out to Brussels on Sunday for a two-day or three-day marathon, no doubt overnight and without sleep at some points, as is often the case in those mad surroundings. However, it is important that Scotland is represented there, given the importance of the fishing industry and seafood to Scotland.

I thank the many members from all parties for their fine speeches today. Alex Fergusson enjoyed the subject so much that he wants to come back and debate it again on Christmas day. He may be a lone voice on that particular suggestion, but I agreed with many of the other points that he made. Claudia Beamish referred to what she was giving her partner for Christmas, which I thought rather spoiled the surprise. I am sure, however, that he never reads in the Official Report the comments that his partner makes in the Scottish Parliament.

I congratulate Christian Allard on his first speech in the annual fishing debate. He reflected on his more than 20 years of experience of working in the north-east of Scotland fishing industry. It is fantastic to have his experience of the industry in the Parliament and to have heard from him during the debate. As he is French, I am trying to work out how we can use his ability and his negotiating and diplomatic skills, given that we sometimes have issues with the French in relation to some North Sea stocks. Perhaps we could make Christian the hake envoy for Scotland—we are always trying to get hake quota off the French, so that is perhaps a new job that we could give to him.

Many members have mentioned the quality of seafood from Scotland. I welcome that, because when we have such debates, we should always remember that, although they are about the technicalities, quota negotiations and all the other issues and bureaucracy surrounding them in Brussels, ultimately they are about the fantastic food that we are lucky enough to have in our waters. We are also lucky enough to have people with the skills, ingenuity, attitudes and aptitude to go out in all kinds of conditions to land that fantastic seafood for our own tables and the rest of the world. Given that around 50 per cent of our food exports are seafood, it contributes to their success.

I am pleased that Claire Baker mentioned serving up that fantastic seafood in our schools. The Scottish Government has run the seafood in schools project for some time now with a lot of success in introducing many of our children to healthy and good-quality Scottish seafood. My son is just as fussy as most other children of his age. It is encouraging that, when he comes back from his school dinners in Moray, he always compliments the fish, which he says is his favourite thing on the school menu. That is good news. There are schools across the country that serve up seafood.

A number of issues have been mentioned. I want first to turn to the talks between the EU and Norway. Many members have mentioned different dimensions of those talks, but there are essentially two dimensions to them. There is an on-going mackerel dispute, which is, of course, of international significance and of crucial importance to Scotland, and there are the white-fish stocks that are shared between the EU and Norway and are often the subject of separate negotiations. Those negotiations have been postponed to early 2014, as have the mackerel negotiations.

It is fair to say that those negotiations are not completely divorced from each other. They are tangled up to a degree, but in past years the white-fish negotiations on some of the crucial North Sea stocks, such as haddock and cod, have been carried out early in the following year due to their being postponed. The guidance that I have taken from our industry is that it is better to wait for a few months—perhaps even just a few weeks—to get the right result in the white-fish negotiations than to rush and have those negotiations on the normal schedule if we are not confident of getting the right result for Scotland. I take comfort from the fact that our industry understands the situation at the moment.

There is a new minister in place in Norway, of course. She is getting to grips with her portfolio and all the complex issues that surround it, and she no doubt welcomes the extra few weeks to do that.

The mackerel dispute is, of course, crucial. I am afraid that I have a slight issue with the Liberal Democrat amendment, as it seems to take the onus off having the option of securing a deal at the right time if the opportunity presents itself. Now that we have good science for the mackerel stock, there is a new atmosphere in trying to reach a deal in the dispute, which has gone on for several years now. I do not want to be bound by Parliament’s view, if possible, to avoid any opportunity that comes along to sign up to a deal if it is the right one for Scotland, so the wording of the Liberal Democrat amendment is not helpful. If we have the opportunity to secure the right deal for Scotland in the next few weeks or months, we should grasp that and put in place a stable management framework for an internationally important stock that is crucial for Scotland and which has to be governed on a sustainable basis.

I put on record once again that I will not sign up to any deal that is unreasonable and unfair to Scotland, rewards irresponsible behaviour from Iceland, the Faroes or any other country, and does not take into account the fact that Scotland, like many other countries in Europe, has been responsible over the past years and was part of an international management regime until the agreement broke down. That regime led to the stock being so healthy in the first place and to those other countries being able to take their quotas, which, unfortunately, they have established on a unilateral basis.

I am happy to support the Labour and Conservative amendments, which add to the motion, and I hope that the Liberal Democrats and other parties sign up to the final motion so that we can move forward with one voice.

Presiding Officer, before I address any other issues, can I check how long I have in the debate?