European and External Relations Committee, 11 Jun 2003

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Official Report 100KB pdf

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Convener

We will now elect a convener for this session. Under the rules of the Parliament, and as agreed, the nomination comes from the Scottish National Party. My understanding is that Richard Lochhead is that nominee.

Richard Lochhead was chosen as convener.

That being the case, my tenure in the chair comes to an end, and I am delighted to hand over to Richard.

Thank you, Phil—you made an excellent convener during your few minutes in the chair. I look forward very much to chairing the committee and working with committee members over the coming months and years, given current topical and challenging European and international debates. I am sure that we have an interesting time ahead, and that we will have no shortage of items on our agenda. I hope that the committee can make an impact, speaking to the people of Scotland about their views on Europe and about the issues that face us. We have important obligations in scrutinising the Government on its European and external relations policies and in representing the Parliament.

I pay tribute to the work of the previous committee. It produced many excellent reports, which I have been reading up on over the past few days. I also pay tribute to the work of Irene Oldfather, the former convener.