Committee
European and External Relations Committee 05 February 2015
05 Feb 2015 · S4 · European and External Relations Committee
Item of business
Connecting Scotland Inquiry
You said that we have a lot to do in terms of education and business. Scotland launched a languages programme for primary and secondary pupils in a bid to enhance the skills of our youngsters so that when they graduate from university, they can acquire employment in Europe and work with European partners almost on an equal footing. Is there something that we are missing that we still need to do a lot on? If so, what should we concentrate on?
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Agenda item 2 is an evidence-taking session for our new inquiry, which is on connecting Scotland and how the Scottish Government and its agencies engage inte...
Dr Eve Hepburn (University of Edinburgh)
Sure. The main drivers of substate Governments’ external relations are usually quite functional, with an emphasis on economic relations. The primary activity...
Professor Michael Keating (University of Aberdeen and Economic and Social Research Council)
The minimum aim is to represent internal competences abroad to ensure that there is a spillover. The Belgians call it the in foro interno, in foro externo pr...
Dr Daniel Kenealy (University of Edinburgh)
I agree largely with everything that my colleagues have said; the only point that I would add is that many of the drivers are linked. I agree entirely with E...
The Convener
SNP
You have mentioned lots of areas that are the main drivers, such as cultural and economic drivers and proto-diplomacy. What strengths does Scotland have on a...
Dr Hepburn
As my written evidence points out, one of Scotland’s strengths that I believe is quite exportable to the rest of the world is its democratic credentials. I a...
Professor Keating
Scotland has the advantage of name recognition, which is important. Of course, the way in which we represent Scotland to the exterior is also important. We a...
Dr Kenealy
I agree that we should make as much as we possibly can of what we went through in the referendum process by exporting our knowledge to other places. The time...
The Convener
SNP
It is an opportunity that will arise over the next few months, and following the general election.
Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP)
SNP
I am interested in the idea of Scotland advertising or exporting our democratic credentials. What are your thoughts on who is best to do that? That may seem ...
Dr Hepburn
Thank you—that is a very good question. An example that I have looked at a lot is that of the Åland Islands and how they went about exporting their model of...
Professor Keating
The problem with such initiatives is the follow-through, as you said. Meetings can be held at which everyone says, “Let’s meet again,” but nothing ever happe...
Hanzala Malik (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
You said that we have a lot to do in terms of education and business. Scotland launched a languages programme for primary and secondary pupils in a bid to en...
Professor Keating
There are international education networks in which Scotland participates, and others in which it does not really get involved because it does not have the r...
Hanzala Malik
Lab
You have touched on almost everything that we are doing in terms of encouraging language skills in our student population. If we are touching all the bases, ...
Professor Keating
There are many policy measures on teaching languages in schools, but unfortunately the state of languages teaching at university level in Scotland is very po...
The Convener
SNP
This committee has scrutinised the one-plus-two languages model. Work by the British Council and by the National Union of Students Scotland’s “Scotland goes ...
Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
When I read the committee papers, my immediate wish was to ask a question about paradiplomacy and hard and soft power, but when I got here this morning I fou...
Dr Kenealy
You have promoted me to professor, Jamie. Thank you. I appreciate that. I will start with paradiplomacy, and if I talk too long somebody else can pick up on...
Professor Keating
It is extremely difficult to measure success, which is part of the problem in soft power and paradiplomacy and why it is very difficult to get resources into...
Jamie McGrigor
Con
Who pays for the Catalans to hang around in the evening?
Professor Keating
They are not so puritanical and Calvinistic about entertainment budgets. They are much more Mediterranean, and you eat well when you go there. However, of co...
Jamie McGrigor
Con
Thank you.
Adam Ingram (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP)
SNP
My take on that is that the generality of paradiplomatic activity that we undertake has a purpose to it in that we want to grow our soft power—our influence,...
Dr Hepburn
Perhaps I can clarify what I meant in my written evidence. When I was talking about trying to develop and export a Scottish model of democracy, that did not ...
Dr Kenealy
It depends on what we mean by “ad hoc”. We need to sort out a couple of different levels of activity. Eve Hepburn was exactly right in what she said; the dem...
Adam Ingram
SNP
How can we measure the effectiveness of the strategy that we adopt? The notion of soft power, or influence, does not lend itself to measurement, does it? For...
Dr Kenealy
When we talk to people who work in these policy areas and people in Brussels, we hear that Scotland is building a credible reputation for itself in the Europ...
Dr Hepburn
Public diplomacy is not just something that substate Governments do. State Governments, too, have invested a lot of time and resources in public diplomacy to...
Professor Keating
I agree with those points, but I make the more general point that it is sometimes a mistake to prioritise policy objectives that we can measure. That is what...