Official Report 494KB pdf
Welcome back to the European and External Relations Committee. We had a long but—I think that members will agree—interesting evidence-taking session.
I have a question about the paragraph on state aid for agriculture. I see that the de minimis aid, which is the aid that does not need to come under state-aid rules, has been doubled. That will be good news for crofters and small farmers, but do we know in what ways it can be used? I can check that with NFU Scotland.
We can get Scotland Europa to give us a more detailed analysis.
It is good news for a lot of people that the amount has been doubled.
I will comment on the horizon 2020 report. It is interesting that the European Parliament has published the internal report on the research and innovation potential, but I note that the bulletin says that awareness of horizon 2020 among small and medium-sized enterprises throughout Europe is increasing. Would it be possible to investigate whether there are any Scottish statistics on that and how the research to get to that conclusion was conducted?
If there are no more questions or comments, do we agree to refer the “Brussels Bulletin” to the subject committees and committees of interest?
Thank you very much. We now move on to agenda item 4, which we have previously agreed to take in private.