Hansard

This is a brief debate to recognise the role that our committees play in engaging with Europe, to examine the priorities that they have identified as having particular importance for Scotland and to consider the EU priorities. The European and External Relations Committee plays an important role in encouraging early engagement; mainstreaming the scrutiny of EU legislation into the subject committees, which can identify its relevance to their areas of expertise; and mainstreaming and co-ordinating the implementation of legislation.

We often bemoan the poor turnout at European elections—only 33.5 per cent of the electorate took part in the 2014 election—but the turnout throughout Europe is not much better. Although the overall figure across Europe was higher than our third of the electorate, 2014 still saw the lowest recorded turnout figure for a European election.

Some members have referred to a possible EU referendum. We are weeks away from a UK election, and Europe and our membership of the EU are perhaps not as prominent as commentators predicted they would be a few months ago. It feels as though the agenda has moved on to much more domestic matters and there are more exciting predictions for commentators to speculate about than those on Europe.

Despite the talk of Eurosceptics, I feel that most of the electorate are fairly apathetic towards European politics, and it is marked that the EU referendum seems to have fallen off the agenda. There are many reasons for that public apathy, but I suggest that there continues to be a lack of understanding of what Europe delivers for us in the modern world. That is partly the responsibility of European leaders, who continue to be institutionally focused, as well as member state leaders, who often prefer to present the positive measures from Europe as their own but take the opportunity to criticise Europe when there are challenges. That is combined with a lack of confidence from citizens that Europe is working for the ordinary person.

We are seeing huge economic challenges across Europe. Our fellow Europeans in many countries are continuing to experience levels of poverty and economic downturn not seen for many years. Many countries have a crisis in youth unemployment, which leads to significant social problems and often depopulation, as those who can begin to look for opportunities elsewhere. Those are significant challenges with no quick solutions. In response to that, Europe—the Parliament, the Commission and the Council of Ministers—for too many people does not look as though it is responding adequately and yet, if we could see delivery on the 10 priorities that everyone has spoken about, we would see a modern, responsive union that is able to address the pressures of our modern times.

Expansion of the European Union has changed the funding opportunities and the funding landscape for Scotland. Although we remain part of CAP funding and our farmers receive support, that is an example of how the focus for agriculture is starting to change, with a much greater focus on land management and the environment. The Commission is starting to change how it spends its resources.

The funds that Scotland receives for regeneration have changed dramatically over the years, but there are still opportunities, including the European social fund, which some members talked about. The minister knows that I have previously raised concerns from the university sector about the proposed changes to the horizon 2020 programme.

However, we need to be alert to opportunities, and the committee’s report—and some of the members—talked about possible opportunities in regeneration; in e-health, which the Health and Sport Committee looked at; and in potential funding for cultural heritage, which the Education and Culture Committee looked at. The committees have an important role to play in overseeing that.

Liz Smith highlighted the freight transport report, which demonstrated how Europe has an impact on many areas of our economy. Christina McKelvie and Willie Coffey talked about the digital single market and highlighted competitive pricing and the need for more consistency across Europe. It is a borderless economy and it makes no sense to have multiple rules. That is a good example of how Europe and the Commission could make changes that benefit the average European citizen. As Willie Coffey said, those issues should be resolved much more quickly than on the proposed timescale.

Malcolm Chisholm talked effectively about the challenges facing the renewables sector and the need for a greater concentration on research and co-operation in Scotland. He highlighted the innovation proposals and the need for more collaborative research. We still have some way to go before some renewables are commercially viable and there needs to be a greater focus on that. As Malcolm Chisholm said, the report mentioned that, when the committee asked about state aid rules, there was not a lot of clarity from the Commission. There were certainly warm words and positive noises, but there was not a lot of clarity about where we might see changes.

I was struck when reading the report that there are many opportunities for co-operative working and sharing good practice. Christina McKelvie mentioned the TTIP report that will come from the committee. TTIP can give us trade opportunities in an expanding world, but there is largely a consensus across the chamber that the NHS needs to be excluded from any proposals that are put forward.

Rod Campbell spoke about the Justice Committee’s work. As we consider the introduction of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill, it is sensible that the committee intends to take evidence from Europol and EU experts on human trafficking. I support the minister’s comments about the need to address people smuggling as a humanitarian issue.

The Equal Opportunities Committee is seeking to learn from EU counterparts in progressing its work on female genital mutilation. When we are facing such a situation, which is evident throughout Europe, it is important that we work together to find solutions.

Anne McTaggart referred to the debate on Europe that we had earlier this year. Although that did not result in a motion that we all agreed to, there was quite a lot of consensus on the importance of Scotland and the UK engaging with Europe and of our continued membership of the EU. I thank the European and External Relations Committee and I look forward to opportunities for the Parliament to explore some of the issues in the coming year.