EDINBURGH had a lot to offer the European Union in terms of best practice, conference facilities and a European tradition, guests were told last night at a special exhibition of projects in the city which had received EU funding, writes Frances Horsburgh, Scottish Political Writer.
However, Lothians Euro-MP David Martin also called for a greater co-ordination of efforts to project Edinburgh as a European capital city of the first rank.
The exhibition was staged in the Assembly Rooms by the City of Edinburgh Council to celebrate the UK presidency of the EU.
Mr Martin, who is a vice president of the European Parliament, highlighted the more than #4m which the council had received recently from European sources.
He said: ''Edinburgh has good cause to celebrate the UK presidency of the EU and has much in common with the desire to create a people's Europe. For example, many European programmes to combat social exclusion and to train and retrain people in new technology were pioneered here in Edinburgh.''
Mr Martin added that he had invited the Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights to meet in Edinburgh later this month to learn about Scotland's legal system and the plans for a devolved Scottish Parliament.
The Herald's European Correspondent, Rory Watson, told the guests that Brussels was an excellent centre of information for journalists. ''There are so many sources it is difficult for someone to lie to you or mislead you consistently.''
He said that for people newly arrived in Brussels, the EU bureaucracy could seem daunting and hard to penetrate. There was not one, but several centres of power, and the trick was in finding them and knowing which one was important at any particular time in the decision-making process.
''In my experience, a large number of Scottish organisations are already very good at this and their hand is likely to be strengthened when the Scottish Parliament also comes on the scene.''
Mr Donald MacInnes, the chief executive of Scotland Europa, said it was very encouraging that Scottish firms were showing initiative in seeking to expand their markets and establish links with former Eastern block countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, now applying to join the EU. The EU would have to spend a lot of money in these countries to help them make the transition.
''That money is going to have to be spent by someone and it might as well be Scottish firms who benefit,'' he added.
He also commented on the growth of regional offices in Brussels similar to Scotland Europa. There were now about 150 representing different parts of Europe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article