Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2015
Scotland has been a progressive and integral part of the European Union for the past 40 years. Engagement with the EU and its institutions is a core priority for this Government. It is a priority that is central to our programme for government with its focus on driving sustainable growth and, tied to that, tackling inequality. That flows from Scotland’s economic strategy, which has internationalisation and engagement with the European Union at its core.
I want to focus on Scotland’s place in the European Union. First, I will focus on our strategic priorities for engagement in the EU, our successes and how we are building on those successes. Secondly, I want to focus on the benefits that EU membership brings to Scotland and vice versa, and why it is vital that that membership continues.
Lastly, I want to spell out why it would be unacceptable for Scotland to be dragged from the European Union against her will and why we need to put in place appropriate safeguards to prevent that from happening.
The institutions in Brussels have undergone considerable renewal and change over the past year or so. Elections to the European Parliament in May 2014 returned many new members of the European Parliament from across Europe. They also returned a number of members of strengthened Eurosceptic parties—a symptom, perhaps, of the frustration felt by EU citizens that the institutions have grown too remote from the citizens they are meant to serve.
A new European Commission, under the presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker, has taken office, with significant changes to its feel and structure. That includes a beefed-up role for vice-presidents, who, over the next five years, will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of key strategic objectives in, for example, energy, economic growth and the completion of the single market.
The Commission has now published its work programme for 2015, which is a 23-point plan aimed at progressing the Commission’s EU 2020 growth strategy. The programme is designed to deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive growth across the entire continent. It fits squarely with our own economic agenda, which, as well as an economic focus, has a social focus. I wrote to the European and External Relations Committee earlier this year to set out the key areas of interest for the Scottish Government. A copy of that letter is available in the Scottish Parliament information centre.
Critical issues for Scotland in that work programme include ensuring the successful agreement of the so-called Juncker investment package, which is a loan guarantee fund designed to deliver up to €315 billion in funding to kick-start a pipeline of capital projects across the EU, including, we hope, in Scotland.
We also attach great importance to the completion of the single market in digital infrastructure, the abolition of EU roaming charges and the delivery of an ambitious international climate agreement, in discussions on which Scotland has been a leader.