NICOLA Sturgeon used yesterday’s Holyrood debate on the Brexit vote to unveil the membership of a standing council of experts to advise on “how best to achieve” the Scottish Government’s “EU objectives”.
The panel will be led Glasgow University Principal Professor Anton Muscatelli, an economist who played a central role in the Government’s thinking during fiscal framework negotiations with the Treasury.
Membership of the panel will be flexible “to ensure that we have access to appropriate advice as it is required”.
Others announced included Lord John Kerr, a former head of the diplomatic service at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; former European Court of Justice judge Sir David Edward; and Professor Anne Glover; former chief scientific advisor to the president of the European Commission.
Others lined up include David Frost, the chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, who is currently battling the Scottish Government over plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol, a battle that has seen the two duke it out in the European courts. Frost previously worked as director for Europe, trade, and international affairs at the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills.
Vasco Ca is an economist and worked as an economic adviser in the Bureau of European Policy Advisers of the European Commission.
Also on the panel are two of Scotland’s MEPs, David Martin from Labour and Alyn Smith from the SNP.
Amanda McMillan, chief executive of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton (AGS) Airports, and Professor Alan Miller, chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, have also signed up, as has Frances Ruane an associate professor in the Department of Economics of Trinity College since 1991.
Grahame Smith, the General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is also on board.
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