Scotland & the EU Scotland's Economy

Scottish Business Buzz (14.06.17)

Scottish businesses demand rethink on Brexit.

Businesses across Scotland have come together to call on Theresa May to abandon any thoughts of a hard Brexit after the General Election ended in a hung parliament.

Hundreds of Business for Scotland members have signed a declaration demanding the Prime Minister rethinks her Brexit strategy.

Scottish businesses need single market membership and not just second rate access. Theresa May’s loss of majority and diminished mandate is a clear rejection of the hard Brexit on which she campaigned during this election. The PM needs to go back to the drawing board on Brexit.

BfS are writing to all the party leaders in Scotland, calling on them to rethink Brexit and to back a soft Brexit with ongoing membership of the single market and, crucially, a special deal for Scotland must be back in play if the UK won’t stay in the single market.

Read more in the Sunday Herald.


Scottish farmers denied full £190 million in CAP convergence uplift

Scottish hill farmers on average are being denied around £14,000 over a six year period under the CAP convergence uplift Rural Secretary Fergus Ewing has said.

Under the last CAP reform, the EU set out to redistribute direct payments more equitably across Europe based on average Euros per hectare. Member states receiving less than 90% of the EU average would be awarded an uplift in order to move towards a minimum rate per hectare.

This would have seen up to £190 million over 6 years returned to Scotland. Instead Scotland received around £30 million under the UK Government’s allocation.  

Read more.


Record numbers of passengers at Scottish airports in May

Edinburgh Airport’s latest figures show 1,231,712 passengers passed through its doors, representing a 10.8% increase on May 2016’s statistics.

The largest increase was in international passenger numbers, up from 662,565 in May last year to 766,094 in 2017 – a leap of 15.6%.

Glasgow Airport also had its busiest May on record after more than 910,000 passengers travelled through its doors – an increase of 10% on the same month last year.

Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: “Strengthening our EU connectivity continues to be an area of focus, so Lufthansa’s recent decision to expand its current seasonal weekly service to four flights per week all year round was extremely welcome news.”

Read more.


Record year for Scotland’s leading Internship Programme 

In the 10th anniversary year of the programme, a record 165 students are gearing up for the Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Scholar Internship Programme. Grown significantly since it launched in 2007 with just six participants. The 2017 cohort has students representing 15 of Scotland’s Universities and is 57% female and 43% male.

The programme, which provides Scotland’s most talented students with opportunities to work with 77 leading organisations in sectors including the music industry, banking, fashion, financial services, food and drink, life sciences, energy, manufacturing as well as not for profit organisations.

Sandy Kennedy, Chief Executive of Entrepreneurial Scotland, said:

“This is truly a landmark year for our Scholar internship programme. We set out a decade ago to find, fuel and spark students with potential to become the next generation of leaders for Scotland. Fast forward 10 years and we now have an alumni of more than 1,000 Saltire Scholars from across Scotland who are giving back to their country and making an impact in organisations around the world.

“The breadth of opportunity available to the Scholars is unrivalled – from working with ambitious start-ups to global corporates –  there is simply no other internship programme like it.”


Join Business for Scotland for a night of leading speakers and top entertainment at the BfS Annual Dinner 2017

Date: 7th September 2017

Time: 18:00 registration – 22:30 carriages

Venue: Crowne Plaza, Congress Road, Glasgow, G3 8QT

Dress code: black tie/ highland dress

Stakeholder members enjoy discounted rate of £80.00 + VAT

Buy your tickets here


 

 

About the author

Rhona Middler

Rhona was Business for Scotland's Engagement Executive and Events Manager.

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