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Meeting of the Parliament 22 April 2014

22 Apr 2014 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Scotland’s Voice in the European Union

Hyslop, Fiona SNP Linlithgow Watch on SPTV

That is why I want to give the opportunity to discuss scrutiny; people can challenge the transatlantic trade and investment partnership without disagreeing with it. We have, in the European Union, lent our support to its development. However, there are opportunities for greater scrutiny and for ensuring greater democratic accountability for some decisions.

Scotland is a European nation and has been an integral part of the European Union for 40 years. The EU is the main destination for Scottish exports; it accounted for 45 per cent of international exports in 2012, with an estimated value of around £11.7 billion. Our exporters continue to sell successfully into the markets of mainland Europe, but we could do better; that is one of the economic cases for independence. We still underperform and could do better, which is one of the cases for export improvement in the EU.

Scotland is also a growing part of the European economy. Since 2006, the value of Scottish exports has increased by 35.1 per cent, and we imported more than £5 billion-worth of goods from other member states in 2013 alone.

We operate as a force for good in the EU in sharing knowledge and ideas through our important work on climate change and energy. We must work internationally on the environment and climate change. The EU’s role and, indeed, Scotland’s role in influencing, exemplifying and providing practical researched proposals and plans to deal with those challenges cannot be underestimated. The EU agendas on energy, climate change, the marine environment, research and creativity, and freedom, security and justice are important to the Scottish people. With our EU action plan, we are working on those as core policy areas for the Government.

On healthcare, Scotland NHS 24 is heavily involved in the European innovation partnership on active and healthy ageing, and it is leading the group on information and communication technology enabled care.

Strong bilateral relations with our EU counterparts are important for Scotland, too. In the past year alone, I have travelled to Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Finland and to Brussels to deepen economic and cultural ties with EU member states. Our recently published “Nordic Baltic Policy Statement” sets out where we co-operate with neighbours on key areas and where we are keen to do more.

Workers’ terms and conditions have been greatly supported by the EU, so when anti-EU politicians talk about strangling bureaucracy, just make sure that it is not the 48-hour maximum working week that they are looking to do away with. The EU is not perfect by any means; it needs to be reformed. However, the issue is what needs to be reformed and how it could and would be reformed.

The Scottish Government has produced a blueprint for reform, “Scotland’s Priorities for EU reform.” It sets out, chapter by chapter, practical areas for change. The big difference between us and the UK is that we do not think that there needs to be a threat of an in/out referendum and treaty reform to secure such change. I do not know what the Labour Party would want to reform or how, but I look forward to hearing about that.

The biggest risk to Scotland’s membership of the EU lies with the obsession of Westminster politicians and the threat of a party that did not hold its deposit in recent by-elections and which spouts offensive, narrow-minded arguments and interests that have no place in a tolerant, internationalist and outward-looking country.

The challenge to Scotland is either to vote yes to independence or to risk being silenced or sidelined in Europe for all time. Independence would give Scotland a seat and a voice at the top table in Europe for the first time, which would ensure that our case is heard when our vital national interests are discussed. The Opposition wants to project fear of Scotland’s continuing membership as a reason to vote no, but that does not seem to be working, as the narrowing of the gap in recent opinion polls has shown.

The Labour Party amendment references outgoing Commission President Barroso’s television interview comments. Those comments were clearly a political opinion that was stated for political reasons, and without reference to or analysis of Scotland’s position in the EU. How do we know that to be the case? I can reveal that, when approached to explain what research and analysis had been conducted to support the statement by President Barroso, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union confirmed in writing that it does not hold documents of any such analysis. I will place copies of the correspondence in the Scottish Parliament information centre this afternoon.

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Meeting of the Parliament 22 April 2014

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