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Opening
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Explanatory slide |
Sets
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So first of all a few
slides to set the context for the Outer
Hebrides.
Just to remind the audience of where
we are, here is a view of Europe at night.
The lights in the North Sea are from
oil rigs.
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You can see from this
slide that we are a chain of islands
approximately 200 kilometres in length
located between 50 and 100 kilometres
off the coast of mainland Scotland to
which it is connected by 3 main ferry
routes.
Three airports provide
connections to the mainland, including
that on Barra, the southernmost island,
where the plane lands on the beach.
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Turning now to our
economy, here are
some key features.
Critically, our population is in
decline and between 1991 and 2001 that
decline was the highest in Scotland.
Looking back further, the
population of the Outer Hebrides has
declined by 43% over the last century
and the decline is projected to
continue, as you can see from the slide,
by 15% over the period from 2004 to
2024.
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Demographic imbalance is
a persistent concern for service
providers in the Islands affecting the
provision for example of education,
housing, and social care services.
In February 2007 we completed the
Outer Hebrides Migration Study, which
identified a number of significant
trends, which have forced us to look at
our whole range of policies including,
notably, those for our economy.
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This rather busy slide
shows our main economic sectors and is
based on a recently completed
input/output study.
The 5 most important sectors for
generating value-added were: public
services, distribution, private
services, transport and agriculture,
fishing and fish farming.
There is some evidence to suggest
that the economy is becoming more
diverse in structure.
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Having set the scene so
to speak, and a rather gloomy one, at
that let us now go on to look at the
place of the Outer Hebrides in Europe.
Right from 1974 when we were set
up as a most purpose Island Authority I
think it is fair to say that the
Comhairle has taken a broad view of its
role and we have lifted our eyes beyond
our immediate boundaries.
Perhaps this was a reaction to
the perceived parochialism of the 3
demitting authorities, but in any event,
we set out to play a role on a bigger
stage and this continues today.
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Despite being one of the
few areas in the UK which voted against
joining the then EEC in the Seventies,
the Outer Hebrides have also be
conscious of being part of Europe.
Maybe this goes back much further
to our Viking heritage when we were the
maritime equivalent of Spaghetti
Junction.
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Over the years we have
benefited, like your islands, from
assistance from the EU Structural Funds
in recognition of the fragility of our
economy and our insularity and
peripherality.
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Up to the new
Programmes, which will run from
2006-2013, much of the funding has gone
to infrastructure projects such as the
Scalpay Bridge shown in this slide which
have aimed to mitigate the effects of
that peripherality and insularity.
I have to say there is a
perception that we have ‘done well’ over
the years from EU funding but I would
argue that in part at least this is
because our circumstances have merited
the investment and that we are now
closer to the level playing field of the
Single Market than would otherwise have
been the case.
The new Programmes are
concentrating on softer measures.......
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.......and for
example we have just submitted to the
Scottish Government this week a bid for
a £10m Rural Development Programme under
the new LEADER framework.
So we continue to look to Europe
to improve our economy and to counteract
the basic disadvantages of ‘islandness’.
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Again going back to the
establishment of the Comhairle in the
mid Seventies we have been actively
involved in the Conference of Peripheral
Maritime Regions over many years and in
1980 were party to the setting up of the
oldest of its six Geographical
Commissions, the Islands Commission.
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The membership of the
Islands Commission covers 24 European
Regional Island authorities, namely
every single EU Island Authority and the
Isle of Man.
As with CPMR itself membership is
restricted to
Regional
Authorities, i.e. the level immediately
below Member State.
The total population of these
regions is about 13.5 million and the
Members range from the very large, e.g.
Sicily and Sardinia to the small such as
Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.
Many of the Members also belong
to other networks such as the B7 for the
7 Baltic Islands and the Islands
Commission has close links with these
networks.
In addition the Islands
Commission is also in contact with other
island structures such as the ESIN
network which represents small islands
or INSULEUR which represents Island
Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The strength of the Islands
Commission I think comes from its
membership acting together rather than a
massive bureaucracy.
Whilst the Islands Commission
draws on the central administrative
resources of CPMR in essence the Islands
Commission staff consists of an
Executive Secretary and a Secretary,
both of whom are financed through an
annual contribution paid by members on a
sliding scale population basis.
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So what can the Islands
Commission do for its membership? Based
on our experience I think three main
roles can be identified. Firstly it
provides a mechanism whereby different
islands can work together for example on
inter-regional projects and we have
benefited from a number of these over
the years, including some for example
where we have lead on or carried out
work on behalf of all the islands.
Secondly the Islands Commission acts as
a focus for lobbying for example in
relation to proposed Directives from the
European Commission. In the past in the
Outer Hebrides we have been privileged
to have had our Convener as President of
the Islands Commission and have used
that position to act on behalf of all
islands but in particular of course for
the UK islands in relation to lobbying
the UK government when it has held the
EU Presidency. Again the Annual
Conference of the Islands Commission has
been held once in Stornoway allowing us
to air our issues and challenges on a
much wider stage than would normally be
the case. Finally there is what may be
described as solidarity. Often over the
years we have working away on a
particular issue, say transport or
fishing and have gained a huge amount
from the knowledge that others have the
same problems i.e. some things are
common to all islands be they in the
north or south and there is much to be
gained from pooling our experience and
knowledge.
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Secondly with respect to
the much talked about draft
Constitutional Treaty the Island
Commission was successful in getting
territorial cohesion as one of the
Union’s objectives alongside economic
and social cohesion; and having an
explicit reference to the
specific situation of regions
suffering from permanent geographic and
demographic handicaps, including the
islands.
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On the radar of the
Islands Commission in terms of
continuing concerns which are of
particular interest to us are how the
Treaty is going to be implemented with
respect to territorial cohesion in
general and the islands in particular;
introducing a differential in favour of
islands both in terms of structural
policies and under competition policy;
and our intrinsic vulnerabilities in the
areas of transport, environment and
energy and where necessary trying to
obtain special provisions to take
account of these.
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Another aspect to the
work of the Islands Commission is that
of its technical networks and we are
currently very much involved with two of
these which relate to energy – ISLENET
and the CPMR Energy Working Group.
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In recent years we have
come to realise that we are blessed with
unrivalled energy resources in terms of
wind, wave and tidal, on a European if
not a world scale.
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In recognition of this
abundance the Comhairle in 2001 took the
initiative to set out a vision of the
Outer Hebrides as an Energy Innovation
Zone, aiming at the realisation of an
integrated investment strategy.
Since 2001 we have been working
hard with our partners on a programme to
realise the potential of these
resources.
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Coming out of some
inter-regional co-operation projects we
have since 1992 been host to ISLENET the
European Islands Energy and Environment
Network, which deals with issues to do
with energy and energy policies. There
is a manager based in Brussels but
managed from Stornoway who runs the
network and this gives us an opportunity
to work with other islands and with DG
TREN of the Commission to move our own
energy agenda forward.
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What we are doing in
the Outer Hebrides for example in
relation to hydrogen was given a wide
airing at the Islenet conference in
Brussels last month and at the same time
put us in a good place to learn from the
experience of others and make new
contacts which we hope will lead to
further developments.
One of the fruits of this effort
recently has been the approval of the
SUSPLAN project under the 7th Framework
Programme.
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In parallel arising from
the CPMR Conference in Stavanger in 2004
CPMR itself set up an Energy Working
Group of which we are Members and which
has run a number of conferences and
workshops, several of which I have
attended, including one in Croatia last
week. Again the opportunity was taken to
further our own interests by working
collaboratively with other on common
issues.
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So what are my
conclusions regarding our involvement in
CPMR. I would highlight three lessons:
Firstly I think it is
important to focus on what you really
want to do and not get distracted into
too many different directions. Get
involved deeply, not broadly.
Inevitably there will
be some costs and expenditure involved
and sometimes some criticism of ‘foreign
travels’. However in my own experience
the costs can be quite small in reality
and be far outweighed by the benefits.
In the old cliché travel does broaden
the mind and it would be very easy to
stay on our parochial islands. In our
own case we have realised in relation to
energy that in terms of the climate
change agenda we can in fact become part
of the solution.
And thirdly we have found
that you can achieve much more and more
quickly by working with others on
problems and challenges which are often
the same regardless of the island.
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My final slide is of St
Kilda.
I sometimes wonder how the
Comhairle would deal with St Kilda if it
had not been evacuated in 1933.
There is no community in the
usually accepted sense living on St
Kilda today.
Islanders do need to work
together if our small islands are to
remain inhabited and in our case if our
population decline is to be halted.
And part of that solution is that
islands need to be adequately
represented.
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