2 May, 2008

NORTHLINK chief executive Bill Davidson met the European transport commissioner Jacques Barrot in Edinburgh yesterday (Thursday) as the European Commission launches an investigation into Scotland’s ferry services.

M Barrot, who is also EC vice president, was invited north by the Scottish Government to discuss the investigation, which was launched after a complaint by SNP Euro MP Alyn Smith and others.

Scottish transport minister Stewart Stevenson said the commissioner had assured him that the investigation “would not threaten the future of ferry services for our remote island communities”.

Mr Davidson joined senior executives from sister company CalMac to outline the ferry services they run and the significant differences between the operations in the northern and western isles.

Mr Davidson said: “Monsieur Barrot was interested to note the significant increase in traffic carried by NorthLink over the last six years and also the importance to the island economies of the large volumes of time critical fish exports which NorthLink carry, much of which is destined for other EC countries.”

The ferry inquiry is expected to last for 18 months and will look particularly closely at the service operated across the Pentland Firth and the Clyde estuary where private companies compete against subsidised ones.

Both companies and the Scottish Government have pledged to fully co-operate with the EC during the length of the investigation.