Committee
European and External Relations Committee 14 May 2015
14 May 2015 · S4 · European and External Relations Committee
Item of business
Connecting Scotland Inquiry
Willie Coffey has asked an important question. I agree that all the strands must be pulled together centrally in order to make a national report. So many of our cities are twinned with other cities around the world. We need to share that information more freely. We must share not only the successes but the failures, so that we do not make the same mistakes. There is no point in reinventing the wheel. With regard to applying for funding, that information needs to be shared once the application has been successful or has failed, so that people know what to do and what not to do. Those elements are good, and perhaps the Scottish Government could come up with a solution that involves it creating an agency or asking an existing agency to pull all of that together. Nationally, we should have that. Also, because things move so fast, authorities should be able to share information with each other online, and annual reports can be put online for ordinary individuals to see. Gillian Walsh is right that citizens will not normally know how many cities their city is twinned with and what activities go on. Her written submission is extensive, but it did not include the fact that, last year, for example, a 13-strong delegation went from Glasgow to Lahore, which resulted, a few days ago, in a charitable donation of £50,000 to allow two twinned hospitals to work together. That happened because of the twinning. A lot of initiatives happen, but not all of them go through the council, which is a shame, because the council has supported the twinning. There are good news stories that we need to share with people. People are answerable to their own authorities, because that is where the responsibility is. However, sharing is important, and I think that we should think about how we share, so that we can all benefit from each other.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Good morning and welcome back to the European and External Relations Committee. Agenda item 2 is a continuation of our inquiry on connecting Scotland. I am d...
Elaine Ballantyne (City of Edinburgh Council)
Good morning. City of Edinburgh Council has always taken a very international outlook. Even if we were not taking an international outlook, we would still re...
Anil Gupta (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)
As you are probably aware, local government has a fairly significant role in the implementation of European legislation, particularly in the areas of transpo...
Malcolm Leitch (West of Scotland European Forum)
Thank you, convener, for the invitation to submit written evidence and to come along and have a conversation with you and your colleagues this morning. The ...
Joanne Scobie (East of Scotland European Consortium)
Thank you for the invitation to attend the committee and to submit written evidence. I also thank the committee for undertaking an inquiry on connecting Scot...
Gillian Walsh (Glasgow City Council)
Glasgow City Council is committed to its international agenda and we have a fairly high number of inward delegations to the city. Our situation is similar to...
The Convener
SNP
The other day, I heard a radio report about Glasgow being commended for its attraction of international business and the impact that its approach has had, ri...
Gillian Walsh
Absolutely. We work closely with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, which has had huge success in attracting conferences to the city over the years. That success...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. We move to questions from committee members.
Jamie McGrigor
Con
I am interested in talking about the visual arts scene in Glasgow, especially as we talked earlier about Scotland’s reputation for having the best internatio...
Gillian Walsh
I cannot answer for the visual arts sector—it is not my sector—but I can say that the culture programme that ran alongside the Commonwealth games last summer...
Jamie McGrigor
Con
With good things such as twinning bringing people together, do you have examples of trade links or of business really benefiting from those links? That quest...
Anil Gupta
You asked about support from the Scottish Government and its agencies. Scottish local government and the Scottish Government have a joint working arrangement...
Elaine Ballantyne
On the Scottish Government’s support for initiatives, City of Edinburgh Council will tomorrow launch its incubation base for small and medium-sized enterpris...
The Convener
SNP
Excellent. Hanzala Malik wants to come in with a supplementary before I let Jamie McGrigor back in.
Jamie McGrigor
Con
You can let him in while I think of something else.
Hanzala Malik
Lab
That is so kind of you, Jamie. Laughter. My question is on the back of the question about Scottish Government support to cities and Anil Gupta’s very good d...
Gillian Walsh
I know that the mela event is always very popular in the city, and that a lot of people are disappointed that it is not going to be bigger.
Hanzala Malik
Lab
Absolutely. Thank you for that.
The Convener
SNP
Jamie, do you want to finish your line of questioning?
Jamie McGrigor
Con
Yes. My next question is on access to European funding, which we have looked into previously in dealing with the horizon 2020 stuff. How easy do you find it ...
Joanne Scobie
Accessing European funding is difficult, as there are approximately 40 different programmes, all of which have different eligibility requirements, budget str...
Malcolm Leitch
The west of Scotland European forum also supported the development of the funding portal, which is a very positive move. I see from the “Brussels Bulletin” t...
The Convener
SNP
You will know that the committee has taken a keen interest in EU funding and how it is disseminated and monitored. The Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe ...
Elaine Ballantyne
I echo the points that have been made about the competition for European funding and the extent of the brokerage that now needs to be done in partnership wor...
Anil Gupta
COSLA has always been concerned about the competitive nature of some of the funding and is very aware of the point that Malcolm Leitch made about the very lo...
The Convener
SNP
Serafin keeps the committee well briefed on all the work that he is doing and I have contact with him when the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of ...
Willie Coffey
SNP
I wonder whether I can open up a wee discussion on part of the discussion that we had with the cabinet secretary earlier. She talked to the committee about “...
Anil Gupta
We are involved in fairly active discussions between civil servants, local government and COSLA on how we provide input to strategies and action plans at the...
Willie Coffey
SNP
You say that it is a two-way dialogue. Let us say that you are a member of the public in somewhere like Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley and you pick up the stra...