EC ‘junket’ row
Flak for council leader over Brussels trip
Stirling Council leader Scott Farmer has hit back at claims a £500 trip to Brussels was a fourday “jolly”.
Tory councillors have accused the SNP politician of using the so-called fact finding mission as an opportunity to “have a good moan” over Brexit.
In November Councillor Farmer said the visit to the heart of the European Community, organised by the East of Scotland European Consortium, was part of moves to minimise the impact of Brexit, but Tories dismissed it as a “junket”.
Councillor Farmer was in Brussels from March 19 to March 21 but travelled to Belgium on March 18, returning to Scotland on March 22. His £130 travel costs were paid for by the council while ESEC – an EC lobby organisation funded by a seven Scottish councils including Stirling, which coughs up £6500 a year – picked up the bill for his accommodation in Brussels, thought to be around £400.
A report outlining the trip was brought before a recent meeting of the provost’s panel, however the Tories say it only made clear that nothing was “actually achieved, agreed or decided during this publicly funded trip”.
Tory councillor Bryan Flannagan said: “. Councillor Farmer has used his jolly to try and further undermine the UK’s position and have a good moan.
“We are leaving the EU in March 2019 and so instead of trying to weaken the UK’s negotiation position, why not try supporting it.
“I don’t see why he had to fly to Brussels to issue a statement supporting access to European programmes like Erasmus – they could have done that from here. I think the people of Stirling would much rather he concentrate on sorting the bin collections out.”
Councillor Farmer, however, described the Tory’s comments as “foolish” adding: “He is so interested in this report to the Provost Panel that he didn’t even bother to turn up to the meeting.
“I represented Stirling Council at the ESEC Brussels visit and was joined by representatives from Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross Councils.
“The local Stirling area would have seriously lost out if we had not had a voice at the table during these meetings.
“Amid the chaos of a potential Tory hard Brexit, this was a positive opportunity for Scottish local authorities to work constructively with our European partners to secure post-Brexit links that will benefit businesses and services locally. As a Policy Board, we all agreed we would continue to lobby for continued access to European programmes, and promote the benefits of closer partnership working with the continent. “Perhaps it is the tone of constructively working with Europe that the Tories object to, or perhaps it is the case they dislike the fact my report findings detail the disgraceful mess their party has led us into and what it is we need to do to minimise the detrimental impact to people here in the Stirling area.
“Either way, I would strongly encourage Councillor Flannigan and his Tory colleagues to stop wasting time and lobby Stirling’s Brexiteer Tory MP Stephen Kerr, who appears all too willing to support the most extreme Brexit scenarios, no matter what the cost is to the businesses and people of his constituency.”