European and External Relations Committee, 28 Mar 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Official Report 198KB pdf

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Pre and Post-council Scrutiny

The next item is our regular scrutiny of the agenda and reports of Council of the European Union meetings.

I have a comment on the education, youth and culture council of 23 February. The report on that was interesting, and I note the considerable time that the council devoted to the subject of modern language learning. The Barcelona European Council of 2002 set certain targets for member states to achieve in relation to modern language learning, and an assessment has now been made of exactly where we have reached. Could we write to the Scottish Executive asking how Scotland is performing against some of those modern language learning targets? With reference to the Lisbon strategy, language skills will be important if we want to take part in the knowledge economy and compete in the future. It would be useful to know how we in the United Kingdom, and in Scotland in particular, are performing in relation to other member states.

Is there general agreement on that?

We discussed the matter in Brussels last week. It was pointed out that we are in a favoured position with respect to language. English is accepted as the language of industry, construction and aviation worldwide.

There was some debate about what we mean when we talk about modern languages nowadays. Are we talking about French, German, Italian and other European languages? The great bulk of our trade is going to be with China, and Japan is also important. India and Pakistan are among the other major trading nations.

It is hard to pick up on specific areas where we should be concentrating and trying to hone Scotland's language skills. We suggested that perhaps the Executive should seek to create expertise in specific areas. That could cover a wide range of languages. When we talk about languages, I wonder what we should be aiming at with respect to the Scottish Executive's role.

There is no doubt that we are in a changing environment. Phil Gallie's comments about the use of English are quite right in relation to many of the new markets that he mentioned, for example China. English does tend to be prevalent in discussions. However, there is a growing trend for people in this country to develop their own language skills, for example in Russian. We would need to consult the universities to verify that.

The Barcelona council of March 2002 recommended that each member state should encourage young people in schools and further education establishments to have their native tongue plus two other languages. It did not, however, specify that those should be French and German, for instance. I wonder how Scotland is performing against that target. My experience is that in mainland Europe children tend to speak two languages other than their mother tongue. They start language learning early. We are doing more of that in Scotland, but it would be interesting to write to the Executive to find out how we are performing against the targets that were agreed in 2002.

The report says further on that most member states agreed with the

"suggestion of testing only those official languages of the Union most widely taught in the first survey round",

then moving up. If we write to the Executive, does the committee want to ask about all languages rather than just those in the first survey round?

I am interested in the recommendation that students learn two languages other than their mother tongue and in assessing how we perform against that target. I am not too worried about whether the two languages are Italian and German or French and German.

Or Gaelic.

Or Gaelic, of course. Any further information would be welcome.

I have no difficulties with that, but I wonder how much encouragement should be given to ensuring that each individual speaks two languages other than their mother tongue, given that industry and other sectors are crying out about education standards in maths and English language. It concerns me a little that we are spending too much time on languages, but I would not be concerned if people were encouraged to pick up other languages. That would not be a bad thing, but I would not like an over concentration on it, irrespective of the intentions of European directives.

Perhaps the question of languages is more of an issue for the Education Committee than for this committee. We just want to ask the Executive for general information, because figures will come out showing where the UK fits into the league table, although it is denied that the purpose is to produce a league table. I think that the deputy convener wants to know where Scotland lies.

It would be helpful to know that.

It is not often we hear Phil Gallie sitting on the fence, but we almost did there.

The item that caught my eye was on the agriculture and fisheries council report on biofuels, to which I have referred previously. The paper states:

"The Agriculture Commissioner presented the Commission's strategy on Biofuels. The strategy sets out how the EU plans to increase the use of Biofuels"

and so on. I understand that the chancellor touched on biofuels in the budget. There must be opportunities in Scotland for the manufacture of biofuels, the growing of biofuel crops and the use of biofuels in vehicles. I know that Executive ministers have taken an interest in biofuels. It would be worth the committee taking an active interest in the issue to ensure that any opportunities are exploited to the full.

Given that under the previous item we agreed to consider energy, can we include the biofuels issue and ensure that it is given a specific slot?

I think so. I read something somewhere recently that indicated that grants for small biomass applications had been scrubbed or cancelled, or had run out of money or something. Has anybody else heard anything like that?

I do not think that such grants were even introduced.

Can we check that out? Maybe I dreamed it, but I seem to have a memory of something.

Under agriculture and fisheries, I want to pick up on vodka production, which is a major industry for Scotland's distillers. They use the grape method as opposed to the potato or cereals methods. It might be worth our while asking the Executive what representations it has made in this area. I know that Markinch, for example, is a major centre of vodka production that does not use potatoes or cereals. It would be a serious blow to the Markinch distillers and to Scotland if they lost the right to market their product as vodka.

Can we check out the vodka from Fife, please?

I might say that I do not like vodka.

So you are not declaring an interest in this item.

No.