NFUS leaders meet Scottish secretary
NFU SCOTLAND leaders have met the Secretary of State for Scotland to discuss Brexit.
NFUS president Andrew McCornick and vice-president Martin Kennedy met David Mundell at the NFU Scotland offices in Ingliston this month. Also present at the meeting was director of policy Jonnie Hall and political affairs manager Clare Slipper.
The topic of discussion was progress in the Brexit negotiations and NFU Scotland’s newly-launched document Steps to Change: A New Agricultural Policy for Scotland.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr McCornick said: ‘Today’s catch-up with the Secretary of State for Scotland is the latest in a long line of meetings the union has held with UK and Scottish governments in recent months on Brexit.
‘Our constructive discussions focused on the importance of finding common agreement on a future policy framework that ensures common standards are adhered to, but allows future agricultural policies to be developed and delivered by the devolved administrations.
‘As part of this, agreement on a financial settlement to fund the new agricultural policies of the UK will be paramount.
‘It is clear, however, that agreement on these two vital issues is still yet to be found between the UK and Scottish Governments and it is our hope that progress can be made in the coming weeks to allow negotiations to move to the next stage.
‘NFU Scotland hopes that it can be part of this process and it is my belief that our proposals, set out in our Steps to Change document which was published last week, can form part of the solution.
‘We are delighted that our document has been broadly welcomed to date and look forward to continuing these discussions with governments, parliamentarians and stakeholders in due course.’