European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, October 4, 2012

Official Report 449KB pdf

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Euro Zone Developments

I hope that everyone is refreshed. We move on to agenda item 3, which is consideration of the responses from the Scottish and UK Governments to the committee’s report on developments in the euro zone. Members have a paper that includes the Scottish Government’s response, as well as a copy of a letter from David Lidington MP, who is the Minister for Europe at Westminster.

The Scottish Government broke down its response into sections of the report on which we were very interested in getting answers. It seems to be an extremely positive response. I hope that members will have a look at it and give me their thoughts and feelings.

The letter from David Lidington does not go into a lot of detail, and I am a wee bit disappointed that it does not address some of our main points. If members give me their thoughts and feelings on that, we can discuss how to contact the Westminster Government again, with a view to getting some of our questions answered. I am happy to take comments from members.

The letter from David Lidington does not say a lot, other than that he does not rule out having discussions with the committee from time to time.

Yes, that is right. That is one of the welcome aspects of his letter—he has agreed to have further discussions with the committee on an ad hoc basis and he has recommitted to the communications strategy that he discussed with the Scottish Government.

As a new member of the committee, I come to the issue at the end of the committee’s inquiry. The message that I take from these responses is that we seem to have a problem with communications. Perhaps the Scottish Government’s impression of what good communications are is different from the UK Government’s.

As I understand it, such matters are laid out in the memorandum of understanding. I know that there has been a bit of tension between the two Governments over the past few days, particularly on transport. Given that as well as affecting the European and External Relations Committee the issue is now reaching into transport, what do we think that the Scottish Government and the UK Government are doing to improve lines of communication so that we do not get such misunderstandings?

That is a highly pertinent question, but it is not one that I can answer at this stage. It is certainly an issue that we can take up with both Governments.

Do any other members—Jamie McGrigor or Helen Eadie, for example—have comments?

No.

I thought that both responses were quite sensible. It is obvious that there is good communication with Ian Duncan, as is made clear in the Scottish Government’s response to paragraphs 62 and 63 of the committee’s report.

Is the committee minded to explore some of the issues and to reaffirm the need for constant two-way communication, not just between the two Governments but between each Government and the committee? Are members happy to pursue that?

Members indicated agreement.