Hansard

That is an issue that the member has raised previously, and I know that he has had reassurances from this Government. We share his concerns, and I am happy to give him further reassurances in that regard.

I also want to provide some reassurance on the horizon 2020 programme, which Liam McArthur, Claire Baker and members of the academic sector have raised with me. It should be said that we see it as a very successful programme. Scottish academics and institutions have received a great deal of funding from it—we have punched above our weight—so any further reduction in horizon 2020 funding would give us cause for concern. I raised the issue with the United Kingdom Government, and it would be fair to say that, when I did so, a number of UK Government ministers who were present shared my concern.

I hope that the Juncker investment package will provide opportunities for educational establishments and academic institutions to access more funding. Although there has been a monetary reduction in the budget for the horizon 2020 programme, the funding has increased by around 38 per cent. I intend to provide further reassurances on that in the course of the debate.

I will touch on the benefits of EU membership shortly, but it is important to see the EU not just as a place where rules and regulations are made, important as they are; the EU is so much more than that. It is a marketplace for exchanging ideas and for showcasing areas in which Scotland can display leadership.

We have displayed leadership through our hard-working Brussels office in the field of energy policy, which I know is of interest to members. We have worked closely with other states and sub-states to increase the visibility of marine renewable energy, and Scotland has played a leading role in the vanguard initiative, which, as members will know, is a collaboration of 25 innovative European regions that aims to influence EU innovation and industrial policies through collaboration.

The initiative has been active on advanced manufacturing, in which Scotland most certainly has a role to play, and we look forward to welcoming its members to Edinburgh for a visit next week. We have also gathered support among a number of EU member states as a consequence of lobbying for the right to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol following the referral of the Scottish Government’s case to the European Court of Justice.

The Scottish Government has never argued that the EU is perfect—no member state that I have come across has ever argued that. The institutions of the EU have grown distant from its citizens and there is a need for those institutions to reconnect. Key to that is pursuing an agenda that generally adds value and addresses those issues that are problems for citizens across the EU. That is why we welcomed the Commission’s plans to tackle stubbornly high youth unemployment, to promote energy security through the energy union package and to tackle climate change or build a north seas grid. Members will be aware of our document, “Scotland’s Priorities for EU Reform”.

The Commission’s agenda needs to address many other issues, including tackling red tape, for example by decentralising fisheries management, reducing the complexity of the common agricultural policy, extending impact assessments to the additional stages of the regulatory process and giving sub-national Parliaments such as the Scottish Parliament a greater say in ensuring that proposed EU legislation respects the subsidiarity principle.

The Commission’s regulatory fitness and performance—REFIT—programme, which will examine the suitability of existing rules, is welcome. Indeed, the Scottish Government has seconded a senior official to the European Commission to undertake a review of the birds and habitats directives under the REFIT programme. That is an issue that a number of environmental organisations have raised with me and my colleague Dr McLeod. I give an assurance that we will look to the REFIT programme to maintain and increase standards.

The sort of reforms that I have just argued for are about doing things in the EU better and smarter. Of course, EU institutions must also do their part to ensure that they operate transparently, and perhaps that is most important for the current negotiations that are taking place on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. I am pleased that the Commission has taken on board the issue of transparency and we are now seeing documentation and discussions online. While the Scottish Government acknowledges that TTIP could well bring benefits, we believe that more needs to be done to address our concerns about the potential impact on the national health service, public services and, of course, the investor-state dispute settlement. We will continue to monitor TTIP.