Hansard

Christina McKelvie gave an interesting introduction when she talked about the increasing depth of committee reports when it comes to EU matters. She also talked about the EU’s increasing influence on Scottish affairs and hinted at some streamlined changes that are necessary to bring about greater accountability. That is a valid point.

Christina McKelvie referred to the impending referendum on Europe. Politics aside—I stress that this is not the time to make party-political comments—the impending referendum provides an opportunity to re-examine how Europe, and Scotland as part of that, does things. That is important for two reasons.

There is no question but that those of us who wish the UK to be firmly established as part of the EU, primarily because of the huge economic benefits that that brings, want some reform. I suspect that all parties in the chamber want reform of some sort, particularly the tougher budget discipline that is required.

It is unquestionable that people want greater transparency. There is also no question about the need for greater accountability. I think that Christina McKelvie introduced the issue of trust. Trust needs to be rebuilt. It is important in politics to have trust, and one of the issues that the EU faces is that it has lost trust throughout the continent for a variety of reasons. That needs to be addressed.

I chair the cross-party group on colleges and universities. Some interesting things are happening in that field that make clear the need for greater accountability and transparency as our young people and our mature students look much further afield.

One of the most interesting developments to happen recently is that the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service system is being opened up beyond the current UK system. That is good news because it means that our young people are looking abroad to study and, obviously, we want to attract more people to come to this country, including people from the EU.

I am conscious of the Government’s attempts to improve that process. It has been let down a bit by the Westminster Government on that. We debated that a little while ago and I fully support the Scottish Government’s moves to address that.

Lots of interesting things are going on in how we look at the EU, but there is unquestionably a need for trust in the institutions to be restored. The world is changing fast. I think that it was Humza Yousaf who said—rightly—that the EU is a big marketplace. It matters a great deal to us as a trading nation and as part of the UK trading nation. We have to ensure that the processes by which we engage in it are fit for purpose, and there are question marks over that.

The committee’s report has been important for pointing us in the direction of some of the challenges that we face. As I said when I closed my opening remarks, anything that can make the democratic scrutiny in this Parliament better must be a good thing. There are many question marks over the Parliament’s committee system, and the Presiding Officer wants to lead some discussion on that. That is right and proper because, if anything about democracy is most important, it is the scrutiny that allows for transparency and for trust in the process to be rebuilt.