European and External Relations Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, September 19, 2013

Official Report 482KB pdf

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“Brussels Bulletin”

We have the latest edition of the “Brussels Bulletin”. I would like committee members to welcome Charles Abbott, who puts together the bulletin and who is with us today. We are delighted to have him at our committee meeting. Maybe we should be very gentle about how we view the “Brussels Bulletin”; we value it a lot.

Do members wish to raise any questions, comments or issues on the “Brussels Bulletin”?

Do you have any indication as to how Mr Barroso’s comments on the state of the union have been received Europe-wide?

Charles is in the public gallery today so he cannot give direct answers. Our process is to pass on any questions raised here to Scotland Europa.

Point taken. I will just flag that question up for further comment.

Clare, did you wish to comment?

I have managed to mislay my bulletin; I am just trying to find it now.

I am so sorry, but is it possible to go back to the China plan, or have we passed that now?

We have moved on. Time is very tight. If we have time at the end, we can have a follow-up chat then.

I would like to follow up on the point raised with the cabinet secretary on the IT infrastructure budget. Can I use a good Scottish word and say that it got a skelping? I am really interested in how other members of the European Union are addressing that issue. A reduction from €9 billion to €1 billion for certain components of the IT infrastructure roll-out must have implications. The cabinet secretary explained how we are approaching the matter, but I am interested in its implications and its impact, if any, elsewhere in Europe.

We can raise that issue.

It would be helpful for this committee to be given an update on the progress of the roaming proposals generally.

Okay. Clare?

I apologise for that delay, convener. I managed to misplace my copy of the bulletin between my office and this committee room.

There are two areas that I regard as of particular interest. First, the internationalisation of higher education across Europe could have a significant impact on what we do in Scotland. The bulletin mentions the Erasmus programme, which will be very important. Given Scottish universities’ very good results in the world rankings, we could have quite an influence on how that policy is taken forward in Europe.

The other piece of information that I thought was interesting is the fact that the budget for the creative industries, which are hugely important to Scotland, has been agreed. Perhaps the other committee of which I am a member will have work to do in that respect.

The only other issue that I wanted to highlight was that, with regard to unemployment, the European Council of Ministers has proposed to extend the European globalisation fund to include workers made redundant as a result of the economic crisis. That could be a very welcome move. The fund has its challenges and issues, and there is a proposal to review and reorganise the whole thing in the coming years, but we should certainly ask the Scottish Government what input it is making. After all, we are talking about €3.5 billion from 2007 to 2013 with a proposed €3 billion going forward and a future top-up of about €1 billion.

The fund has a lot of euros that we should be trying to access and, given the Scottish Government’s overarching objective of increasing economic growth and targeting young people in particular, some of whom have been made redundant as a result of the economic crisis, I think it important that we highlight this issue to the Government and possibly other parliamentary committees.

This is all part and parcel of our decision that someone with expertise in European issues be employed to guide people on how they might access various funds. That person could advise on such matters. How far have we got with that?

You will be delighted to learn that the Scottish Government has confirmed that it is indeed employing someone to take on that role. We will get an update on that job role and specification and the impact that it will have on some of the issues and challenges that we have highlighted over the past two years.

That is fantastic. Is a job spec going to be put together and sent around?

Katy Orr has just reminded me that Colin Imrie gave us some information about this in his briefing on our planning day. We can have a look at what he said and update you accordingly.

Are members happy with the “Brussels Bulletin”?

Members indicated agreement.

I again thank Scotland Europa and Charles Abbott for putting the bulletin together. It makes a very valuable contribution to the committee’s work.