13 July, 2007

SCOTLAND’S First Minister called for Scotland to play a bigger role in the annual fishing negotiations in Brussels on his first official trip abroad yesterday (Thursday).

Amongst other appointments, Alex Salmond held talks with the European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.

Afterwards he said he had made it clear to Mr Borg that Scotland should have more say in how Scottish waters are managed, pointing out that fishing was 30 times more important to Scotland than the rest of the UK.

He said Westminster should not be leading the talks on fish quotas while 70 per cent of UK fish are caught in Scotland.

He was contradicted by Labour MSP Rhona Brankin who said the idea that Scotland should speak on behalf of the rest of the UK was “fanciful nonsense”, when England, Wales and Northern Ireland all had major fishing industries.