Chamber and committees

We want the discussion to be as free flowing as possible, so if you want to come in on a question or come back with further comment, please indicate to me or the clerks and we will try to include everyone as much as possible.

I move to questions from committee members, and I introduce Sarah Boyack.

Does Billy Garrett want to go next? If any of you wants to come in, you can put up your hand and I will come to you. Go ahead, Billy.

Billy Garrett wants to come in; I will then bring in Kirsty Cumming. However, first, I have a quick question for Katie Nicoll. Obviously, the project that you talked about was big, and it involved a considerable amount of time and complexity. What was the driver for putting it in place? Where did the policy driver come from?

I echo Dr Allan’s comments about how we want to strengthen those opportunities. Obviously, it is for Scottish Government and UK Government ministers to take forward those wishes.

Thank you very much for your attendance—

Ambassador, you mentioned the free movement of people. Obviously, Scotland finds itself outside the European Union now, which presents challenges to our young people in terms of opportunities for free movement, studying abroad and linking up with other youth organisations. I know that that was a real priority at the Nordic Council, and I believe that you define young people as being those up to the age of 28. Is that right?

Absolutely.

Good morning. I offer a very warm welcome to the 11th meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. We have apologies from Jenni Minto MSP. I am sure that that means that she will leave our committee shortly. I thank Jenni for her service to the committee, and I wish her the best in her ministerial role, assuming that Parliament passes the motion on junior Scottish ministers this afternoon. We send our best wishes to our colleague. Donald Cameron MSP, our deputy convener, joins us remotely.

Our first agenda item is to take evidence from His Excellency Sturla Sigurjónsson, Ambassador of Iceland to the United Kingdom, on the priorities of the Icelandic presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2023. I invite the ambassador to make a short opening statement.

Reflecting on the awards ceremony, I found it absolutely amazing. It was broadcast throughout the whole Nordic region, and the audience that it had in those countries was quite spectacular. I thoroughly enjoyed that. It is our literature and our music that speak to peace, so it was very welcome to see that at the time.

Well, since you mentioned the importance of free movement of people, I wondered what the council’s priorities are for your youth in the Nordic countries and what opportunities you see being opened up by further integration and free movement.

We move into private session for our final agenda item.