Aberdeen South MP Callum McCaig spells out why he believes the UK should stay in the EU.
Aberdeen has always been a city that looks beyond itself to grow and evolve.
Our trade is deeply rooted across the North Sea, the Baltic and beyond – even Robert Gordon made his fortune in Gdansk – and we continue to benefit both economically and culturally from our ties to the EU.
Membership has a positive role in supporting Aberdeen, with EU funding at the heart of our drive to diversify into renewable energy technologies. The proposals for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in Aberdeen Bay have support from the EU of 40million euros (about £31million), and the hydrogen bus project on our streets received £8.3million.
These are significant investments in a competitive market.
EU plans for interconnection will also allow Scotland to export more electricity, potentially unlocking massive investment in renewable generation.
Aberdeen has two top class universities which benefit from access to academic talent from across Europe and research funding from Brussels. Students from the EU themselves make a significant economic and cultural contribution to our campuses and city and their connections formed here will serve us well for generations.
On top of local benefits, the EU also allows access for our companies to export to the world’s largest economic bloc and provides us with the freedom to visit, live and work anywhere in Europe without a visa. Add into the mix the enviable social protections we enjoy as a result of membership.
The recent refugee crisis has shown us we have freedoms which people will risk their lives for, hoping their children will live like we do. The EU is a beacon of hope in a turbulent world – I think we should embrace and celebrate that, not turn our backs on it.
Norway is often cited as an example of how the UK could thrive outside the EU. Norway is undoubtedly successful, but the reality is they accept regulations from Brussels, they adopt the principle of free movement of people, and pay a contribution per head to the EU budget similar to ours.
We have no guarantee of that deal if we left, and we definitely wouldn’t have a seat at the table to negotiate.
Why then has the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU failed so far to resonate with the very people set to vote on it? I think the reasons are simple and I can see them around me in the Houses of Parliament.
Within the Westminster bubble the debate on the EU often seems to happen entirely within the Tory party. Outwith these ancient walls (the modern world that people actually live in), life is not dominated by euroscepticism and infighting but is in fact wise to the benefits of our ties with the EU.
Readers of this already know they are part of a Scottish electorate that is now more engaged and empowered in politics than it has been for decades.
Compare recent levels of debate, discussion and engagement eight weeks before the vote, with that seen in the Scottish independence referendum and the difference is stark.
And it isn’t because we don’t care – apathy is not the answer to this quandary.
A privileged few MPs started an argument on this, but it is the sensible voting population who will make the decision and end the nonsense on June 23.
