European and External Relations Committee, 07 Dec 2004

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Official Report 339KB pdf

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United Kingdom Presidencies (Council of the European Union and G8)

Item 5 is the involvement of the Scottish Executive in activities during the UK Government's presidency of the Council of the European Union from July to December 2005 and in the G8 summit. I invite Mr McCabe to make an opening statement on those points, then we will move to questioning.

With your permission, I will deal with both subjects.

Please deal with them together.

I am delighted to say that Scotland will be actively assisting the overall effort in delivering a successful United Kingdom presidency of the Council of the European Union next year. The presidency represents an excellent opportunity to showcase Scotland and Scottish expertise to a wider audience in the European Union and the wider world.

We will be hosting a wide variety of events in Scotland during the presidency: some 26 events are planned to take place and the list is growing. Delegates from throughout the European Union will visit Scotland for those meetings, which represent an excellent opportunity to show visitors how welcoming and vibrant Scotland is while contributing positively to the development of European Union policy initiatives. Some of the events, which include the Asia-Europe meeting of customs director generals, the world youth congress and the European social services conference, are high profile and will include delegates from outwith the European Union as well as senior officials from European Union institutions.

We always look for opportunities to assist in the overall United Kingdom effort that is involved in the presidency. I made that clear to the Foreign Secretary last week when I attended the joint ministerial committee on Europe in London.

It is likely that the Parliament will be of huge interest to many of the delegates visiting Scotland to attend presidency events. I am sure that members will join me in expressing the hope that any requests for meetings or receptions in the Parliament building will be accommodated where possible.

I am sure that the minister would not want me to venture into so sensitive an area as the catering arrangements. Wars have started over less than that, Mr McCabe, but we echo your sentiments.

That is exactly why I was trying to pass it over to you, convener.

I have just come out of the trouble zone and I have no intention of going back into it.

We are clearly delighted that the United Kingdom Government has chosen the Gleneagles Hotel as the venue for the G8 summit in July 2005. As most of us would concur, it is a venue that would say positive things about any country in the world.

This will be a key international moment for Scotland. Worldwide public and media attention will be on us. It is a chance to demonstrate our capacity to host international events at the highest level and an unmissable opportunity to promote a modern Scotland. We are developing plans that will be launched early next year to ensure that participants, journalists and guests see the best of Scotland. We see it as an excellent opportunity to promote Scotland as a world-class destination for business tourism, reinforcing the work that is being done on Scotland's international image.

We seek to maximise the one-off economic benefits that will arise from servicing the needs of the summit and we will try to maximise the impact from the 2,000 staff and up to 3,000 media representatives who will come to Scotland to support and report on the meeting. We also intend to do all that we can to maximise the long-term economic and other benefits that the publicity associated with the meeting will generate.

As I indicated earlier, this is an opportunity for the people of Scotland to engage even further with some of the major issues to be discussed at the summit, for example third-world development issues in Africa and climate change. We are working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, police, local government and others to ensure that the event plays out with maximum benefit to the local area, and to Scotland, with minimum disruption to local residents.

Early in the new year, we will make announcements about G8-related events that are to take place in Scotland. However, I can tell members now that we intend to host a major reception at Edinburgh Castle that will involve representatives from a wide variety of non-governmental organisations that can assist us in maximising the impact of the summit, help us to portray Scotland as a friendly and welcoming venue and ensure that the benefits of the event are felt in Scotland for many years to come.

I will follow on from my earlier point about international development. You rightly said that one of the two centrepieces of the G8 summit will be the Prime Minister's commission on Africa, which is potentially important and which could tie in with the kind of international development role that we foresee for Scotland, in particular in relation to sub-Saharan Africa and the countries with which we have a long-standing historical connection. Is the Executive making any submission to that commission? How will it get some reflected limelight on our international development role in the weeks leading up to the very short period of the G8 summit before the caravan moves on?

The formal invitations to the G8 summit have not yet been issued by the FCO, but we intend to hook up with leaders of some of the countries that will be invited, in particular those that are not G8 countries such as some of the African countries. We intend to investigate how we can engage with them with a view to furthering the international development work to which you have alluded.

You mentioned the reception for non-governmental organisations at the castle. At the tail end of our delegation's visit to the States, I was at a small conference in Washington, because I am on the board of the Global Aids Alliance. Representatives of 40 to 50 American NGOs were around the table, and within the first 15 minutes, six of them had mentioned the G8. They said that it was in England but I corrected them. I even told them that it is in Perthshire in my region.

Perth and Kinross Council has a website for the G8 summit. Will you have a website so that you can help some of the NGOs who want to be represented at the G8 and who want to have facilities in Edinburgh, where most of the journalists will be based?

I understand that we are establishing a website. I would have been very surprised if we did not; it is the obvious way to promote any major event.

When will it be up and running? Perth and Kinross Council's site was up and running about four or five months ago.

My understanding is that it will be up early in the new year. I am told that it will be soon and the new year is soon, so I must be right.

Could you look at that because—

Soon is a much over-used word.

That was not a civil service "soon"; it means soon.

I have a final point. I understand from the parliamentary external liaison unit that between 7,000 and 7,300 journalists will be coming to cover the G8 summit. Two hundred are coming from Japan alone. Many—probably most—of them will be based in accommodation in Edinburgh. Will you look into giving a reception for some of the journalists as well, because it is important that we make good contacts with such a multitude of journalists from all over the world?

I would expect you to be severely disappointed in the work of the Executive if we did not capitalise on such a unique opportunity to have that number of foreign journalists go away with a good impression of this country. I am sure that if that happens, we will reap the benefits for many years to come. However, we will be placing particular emphasis on proper, useful and positive engagement with the media representatives that come for the summit. I had not heard that the figure was as high as 7,000, but I hope that you are right.

I welcome the minister's comments on the G8 and the fact that he will be using Edinburgh Castle. It was used for the Regleg dinner and those who attended will agree that it was successful and very much appreciated by all who visited. It did Scotland proud.

I do not want to pre-empt the publication of the minister's programme in January, but will he assure us that all Scotland, and not just the west of Scotland, will be included in one way or another in next year's events so that we can all go home to our constituencies and welcome the attention that the G8 summit will bring?

We are liaising with local government throughout Scotland. For example, we are looking at standardising the banners, which would allow the stamp of a local area to be put on a standard banner promoting the G8 summit. It is important that we send a consistent message from across Scotland. It is also important that we encourage people to get involved in the activities and to explain to their local communities how they can take advantage of the many visitors that will be here and that we allow those visitors to go to different parts of Scotland to explain their perspectives on life, particularly those from some of the developing countries where they face far more challenging situations than our own.

I said earlier that I think that this is a unique opportunity. It is up to us to be imaginative in maximising the benefits. However, it cannot all be down to the Executive. I am quite sure that among the people we invite to the reception at Edinburgh Castle will be a body of enthusiastic people—unsung heroes—who work away without any recognition, month after month, in the interests of people who are more challenged than ourselves.

We must also say to our democratic colleagues in local government that this is an opportunity for them to engage their local communities in the promotion of their area and to do work to bring to the attention of our citizens the fact that we have an opportunity to make ourselves feel a bit more humble—despite all our difficulties, there are many people in the world who exist in circumstances far worse than our own.

It is a little-known fact that the consular office for Malawi is in Irvine in my constituency in the west of Scotland. I certainly look forward to feeding information about that into the process.

Yes, and Dr Livingstone made the mistake of leaving my constituency to visit that country. Of course, he did not know who his MSP was going to be.

That was long before you delivered quality representation to the people of Blantyre, Mr McCabe.

As you have probably deduced, international development interests a great number of members. Is the Executive taking the view that the G8 summit offers an opportunity for policy initiatives on international development to be launched or showcased? I appreciate that those issues have come to the top of the Government's list of priorities only recently, but do you have any idea of what form of initiatives the Government might use to pursue the international strategy's contents in relation to development?

Conversations on the Prime Minister's African initiative will take place with representatives of some of the third-world countries that are being invited and we have established the £3 million fund that I have mentioned. We see ourselves as having a role in international development, but I would hate for that role to become dictatorial or for us to hand down suggestions to people about how they can improve themselves. We must engage with those who will attend the summit to find out from them how we can best assist. That is extremely important. I would not like to give other nations—particularly African nations—that suffer enormous challenges the impression that we have all the answers. To be blunt, if we had not tried to apply some of our answers in the past, Africa might be in a healthier state today.

That is a fair comment.

Is the Executive seizing the opportunity of the UK Government's having extended invitations to countries from the developing world or is it establishing particular contacts whom it wants to invite in relation to future programmes?

We are discussing the situation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The summit is a United Kingdom event, but we are explaining how we want to assist the Prime Minister's African initiative and how that can complement some of the things that we want to do on international development. That is how we are approaching the matter at the moment. I understand that the list of invitees has not yet been finalised. Once the list is better known, we will be able to assess how the kind of engagement that we want fits.

Do you have input to that process already through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office?

Yes.

Will you say a little about the priorities that the Executive is passing on to the UK Government as issues and policy areas on which it wants the UK presidency of the EU to concentrate?

The Executive has made known its strong view that, as one of the leading legislative regions in Europe, Scotland wants greater input to the development of European policy and would like legislative regions to have a greater say and be more able to influence the position that member states take. I hope that, during the UK presidency, that will be alluded to more or expanded upon.

The First Minister announced in connection with Regleg that the Scottish Executive is to be involved in a pilot project with the European Commission on the involvement of legislative regions in decision-making processes in the EU. Are you in a position to share with the committee any further details on that?

That is certainly something that the First Minister has promoted. As you know, we intended to make progress on some of those discussions last week but, unfortunately, Commissioner Wallström was not able to attend.

The First Minister regards the matter as an extremely important part of the future development of the constitutional arrangements and of improving Scotland's standing and the regard that other countries have for our informed position in Europe. We will certainly progress the matter, which is an important part of our European work. I give the committee an assurance that we have no intention of stepping back from the initiative.

Those of us who sat through two days of Regleg meetings can perhaps feed back to you on them. One of the most important matters that arose was the need to safeguard and maximise an enhanced role for the regions in the constitution. I hope that you will pay close attention to that. There is concern about the matter. Regleg was formed in part in reaction to the fact that the Committee of the Regions is a mixture of everything, in which ministers president of Länder sit alongside city mayors. Do you agree that Regleg is potentially an important organisation?

I absolutely agree. As I said, as our constitutional arrangements settle down and mature and we are able to focus on the areas to which we attach particular importance, our voice in Regleg will be important. How we make our voice heard will become increasingly important as populations throughout Europe alter their view of what they expect from the European Union. It will be increasingly important to take the initiative in a way that is meaningful for people in Scotland and so increases the relevance of the European Union to people in Scotland.

To what extent are ministers and officials working with colleagues in Wales on preparations for the UK presidency of the Council of the European Union?

And colleagues in Northern Ireland.

And officials in Northern Ireland, because the Northern Ireland Assembly is not yet reconstituted.

That is part of the work that takes place at the joint ministerial committee on Europe, on which the devolved Administrations are represented. The forthcoming UK presidency is on the agenda for meetings of the committee, at which each Administration puts its view. As I said, I made it clear to the Foreign Secretary at our most recent meeting that given that there will be substantial obligations on UK ministers, we will be available to help to take the strain, perhaps by chairing meetings or taking over the running of events, if UK ministers are unable to fulfil their obligations on any occasion.

Will you give us an update on the events that will take place in Scotland during the UK presidency? Early in October you kindly sent us a list of such events, seven or eight of which, such as the fresh talent conference, were still to be confirmed. In particular, will you tell us what input the Executive will have into the world youth congress, which will take place at the end of July? Other ministers have mentioned the potential importance of the event.

I will be happy to make that information available. I mentioned that 26 events are already planned, but the list is growing. We hope that it will grow substantially, because the more involvement there is in Scotland, the more opportunities there will be to confirm to people our earnest resolve in relation to the EU and to showcase the country to other member states.

You will expect me to say that the world youth congress is important. All of us who are involved in public life know that it is difficult to engage with young people and that young people are perhaps signing off from the political process. We think that our way of doing things is relevant, but members of the public, in particular young members of the public, do not necessarily agree with us. It is important that young people throughout Europe have a voice and I hope that the fact that the congress is taking place in Scotland will send a signal to young people in Scotland who demonstrate their interest in public life and politics in many other activities. I think that there is evidence of growing interest in attending demonstrations and joining pressure groups, but that interest does not necessarily manifest itself in direct engagement with the political process at the ballot box.

What will be the Scottish Executive's input to the congress?

Obviously we will have an input, because the event will take place in Scotland. Representatives from the Scottish Youth Parliament will attend the congress, although I am not sure of the exact mechanism whereby they will link into the event. We will be extremely keen to increase the event's profile in any way that we can. We will consider ways of doing that and we will work when we can with other member states that send delegations to the congress, to ensure that the event is successful.

Thank you for your evidence on a number of different topics. You talked about a constructive engagement with the European and External Relations Committee and we look forward to that. We intend to publish our report on our inquiry into the promotion of Scotland worldwide in January. I hope that it will make a constructive contribution to the Executive's priorities in the area.

We will do our best to respond to the report as soon as we can.

Thank you. There are no further items on the agenda.

Meeting closed at 17:16.