October 2000

IS THE COMMISSION PLAYING THE GAME?

Once again the European Commission has come up with plans to make rural life even harder. This time the target is the shooting community. The Commission proposal calls for trained animal pathologists on every shoot and the transportation to 'approved game handling establishments' of shot game within a period of 12 hours of being killed. Although there can be no doubt that in view of recent food scares hygiene is of vital importance in protecting the consumer, this proposal comes at a time when the rural community is already trying to cope with the worst ever decline in the agricultural sector, as well as proposals to ban fox-hunting and to curb the use of shotguns for sporting activities by under 18-year olds.

This time, however, the Commission seems to be willing to listen to reason and has indicated that it would change the proposal according to suggestions I have prepared after consultation with the industry. These suggestions tackle in particular the problem of expecting people to take a degree in pathology before they go out to shoot, and of course the ridiculous idea that game must always be delivered to a licensed game establishment within 12 hours of being shot.

SHETLAND LAMB ON PARLIAMENT MENU

Succulent, heather-fed Shetland Lamb was on the menu for the first time in the European Parliament in Brussels the other week. The 626 MEPs and parliamentary staff had a chance to eat the Scottish delicacy on Thursday, 28 September. The special promotion was organised by myself together with Gillian Fry of Shetland Agricultural Marketing. The exciting opportunity for Shetland lamb lies in the fact that the catering franchise in the European Parliament is undertaken by Sodexho, the market leader in European catering. The promotion was so successful that I am now confident that Shetland lamb will find its way onto the menus of Sodexho restaurants across the continent, including perhaps even Disneyland Paris.

Only two years ago, Shetland farmers were forced to shoot 25,000 ewes and bury them in a mass grave, when the bottom fell out of the sheep trade and the cost of transporting animals to Aberdeen market exceeded their sale value. The farmers fought back, setting up Shetland Agricultural Marketing and appointing Gillian Fry as its Chief. She has now established new markets for prime Shetland farm produce all over the world and has been successful in placing Shetland Lamb, as a gourmet delicacy, on the menus of some of London's leading restaurants and in the Scottish and European Parliaments.

THE PROBLEM WITH EU ENLARGEMENT

The big issue in the EU just now is enlargement and the reforms necessary to accommodate that enlargement. Within the next five to ten years, a range of East and Central European countries will become full members of the EU, swelling the total population to over 500 million. Poland alone has a population of more than 40 million people, 27% of whom work in agriculture. The impact which enlargement of the EU will have on the UK and the other existing Member States is therefore obvious. Our grants, subsidies and structural funds will drift from the West to the East in an effort to bring the accession states up to our standard of living.

In the UK we presently get back around 60p out of every £1 we contribute to the EU budget. Germany, The Netherlands and France are also net contributors to current EU spending programmes. However, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Ireland are all net benefactors from the budget, getting back much more than they pay in.

All of this will change after enlargement takes place. All fifteen current Member States will be considerably wealthier than any of the new entrants, so all will have to dig deep into their pockets to contribute. It is the sudden painful realisation that this will be the case, which has caused some of these countries to put the brakes on the whole enlargement process. They are demanding radical reforms of the EU institutions - the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers - before enlargement is allowed to take place.

While fundamental reform of the institutions is long overdue, this process must go hand in hand with enlargement. We cannot afford to disappoint our neighbours in the accession states. They suffered from years of oppression under the iron fist of the Soviet regime. We have a moral duty to welcome them back into the embrace of the European family. By doing so, we will secure for them and for ourselves, the peace and stability which has prevailed throughout the EU for more than fifty years.

Of equal importance, however, are the opportunities which enlargement will bring. Scotland and the UK are well positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning new markets in Eastern and Central Europe. Just as our grants and subsidies drift to the East, so will demand for goods, services, products and intellectual property drift to the west. Now is our chance to nail down these lucrative contracts. The CBI, Chambers of Commerce, NFU and others should be scouting the accession states for new business, to ensure that Scotland is ready to take full advantage of our membership of the world's biggest and most affluent marketplace.

Nor should we allow the socialists to drive an enlarged EU into a Federal United States of Europe, where harmonised taxes, a single currency, a European army and a centralised legal system, become the order of the day. That is not what the majority of Scots or Britons want. Surely we would not ask the new Members States from the East to swap one system of centralised, bureaucratic, socialist control for another?

Scottish Conservative MEPs are determined to preserve our independence as a nation and to preserve our right to control our own economic destiny within an expanded and reformed EU. We must play to our strengths as a global trading nation in an enlarged Europe of independent nation-states. Of course we want to develop trade and prosperity in Europe and to work closely towards that end with our European partners. But we also want to nurture our traditional links with the United States, Asia and the Commonwealth. We want the UK to be a focus for enterprise and investment from around the world and Scotland to be an oasis of productivity, growth, wealth-creation and high employment.