I am the oldest member of this committee—looking around the room, I find that hard to believe—and so have been given my moment of glory. I am charged with presiding over the first two items of business: the declaration of members' interests and the election of a convener. Once a convener has been elected, I will hand over to that person. Dr Ewing and Ben Wallace send their apologies.
I have not registered this interest, as it is not required to be registered, but for the purposes of this committee it should be noted that I am a member of the Committee of the Regions.
I am in the same position. In my declaration of interests I registered my membership of the Committee of the Regions, but I want to bring it to the attention of this committee—although, as Mr Henry says, that is not absolutely required.
I am not sure whether this is of interest—I merely take the precaution of mentioning it at this stage—but I am still a member of Perth and Kinross Council. Issues relating to councils and structural funding may be considered to be of interest to me.
I, too, may have an interest. As a journalist, I hope that in future I will be paid to write articles about Europe. I have been doing that for years, so not much will have changed.
As a farmer, I should declare a pecuniary interest, because my business is in receipt of European funding.
I am an employee of British Telecommunications Scotland, which has extensive European interests.