Cod crisis may sway Scottish constitution vote

Scotland’s vote on the planned EU constitution could be hijacked by hostilities over the fishing crisis, Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell admitted on Monday.

The strength of public feeling over the much-vilified common fisheries policy had dealt a damaging blow to Scotland’s traditionally pro-European stance, he told Brussels-based think tank, the European Policy Centre.

 “Given the mood as things currently stand around issues like fishing in Scotland, I am not at all convinced that the so-called pro-European mood in Scotland is necessarily any stronger than in England,” he said.

While remaining upbeat that the argument could be won, McConnell predicted an uphill struggle in the campaign for a yes vote, where nationalist parties would “whip up anti-European feeling” over the EU’s draconian fishing cutbacks.

 “There is a danger that the argument around fishing becomes in Scotland not just symbolically important but distorted in a way that all European debate has been throughout the UK regularly these past 20 years,” he said.

Increasing disillusionment with EU decision-making was part of an overall public disillusionment that politics was “out of touch,” he said frankly.

“I don’t think we should underestimate that there will be reluctance in Scotland just as much as there is in England to any impression that people are losing more control of their own lives.”

But McConnell threw his weight behind UK leader Tony Blair’s decision to hold the poll, arguing that “if the new Constitution is changed in the appropriate way, then I think the strength behind the argument for a yes vote in the UK is such that you can win the vote.”

French premier Jacques Chirac predicted on Sunday that Blair’s powers of persuasion would deliver a clear victory on the referendum.

Blair used his visit to Paris to stress the UK would not back down on its ‘red line’ issues to give up national vetoes on taxation, defence, foreign policy and social security. 

McConnell was on a visit to Brussels to lobby head of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, for more recognition for Europe’s larger regions, which include Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders and Bavaria.

Europe’s expansion to 25 member states was “fantastic” but it left the EU harder to govern, he said.

“Ancient nations and regions feel as if smaller countries, smaller parts of Europe have more power that they can exercise at the centre,” he said.

As the current rules stand, tiny Malta – with a population of just 394 000 – has more political clout round the Brussels negotiating table on crucial issues such as fishing than the Scottish Executive.

 

 

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