BREXIT offers “opportunities” for Scotland’s fishing industry, an SNP minister has said.
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing told MSPs the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) had failed the Scottish fleet and life could improve for them outside Europe.
However he also leaving the single market posed a threat to £400 million of seafood experts to Europe each year.
READ MORE: No Brexit deal possible without consent of Holyrood, says Lord Advocate James Wolffe
The Scottish Tories accused the government of sending “mixed messages” on Brexit, given Nicola Sturgeon’s strenuous efforts to stay in the EU and hence the CFP.
Mr Ewing was speaking in a Holyrood debate ahead of next week’s annual fisheries council in Brussels, which will agree 2017 catches.
He said he could understand why many in the fishing industry had voted to leave the EU.
"The Common Fisheries Policy has not been a success for Scottish fisheries and I recognise that there are opportunities outside of the EU for our industry,” he said.
"I fully intend to press the UK Government to ensure that we make the most of these."
Mr Ewing recently wrote to UK Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom asking for a reassure that she would not permanently negotiate away access to Scottish waters as part of Brexit.
He added: “We should negotiate access to our waters on an annual basis, as indeed do Norway, the Faroes and Iceland.
"It would be totally unacceptable for the UK Government to use access to our waters to solve problems with quota in English waters as they seem to hint that they may wish to do."
Tory MSP Peter Chapman said he struggled to square Mr Ewing's stance "with his desire to keep the fishing industry subject to the CFP by us remaining in the EU".
He said: “Scottish fishermen see the future as one outside the EU, and the SNP position of staying tied to the EU, even at the cost of a second independence referendum, is seen as a complete betrayal by our fishermen.”
LibDem MSP Tavish Scott said the Scottish fishing industry "hates" the CFP and urged the Scottish Government to start work on its own version.
He said: "There's no doubt that the great majority of fishermen voted leave in June, and no wonder. The Common Fisheries Policy run by Brussels is top-down, ineffective and indeed woeful. It's not common, it does nothing for fish stocks and is rarely even a policy."
Labour's Rhoda Grant said: "Our fishing communities want rights to UK waters, however they will also need access to European markets and that will require further negotiation."
Mr Ewing also came under fire after it emerged the Scottish Government had bungled yet more payments related to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
READ MORE: No Brexit deal possible without consent of Holyrood, says Lord Advocate James Wolffe
Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans told Holyrood’s public audit committee there had been a recent duplicate CAP payment of £850,000, and overpayments totalling £746,000 to 166 firms under an emergency loan system set up after the failure of a £178m IT system for CAP.
Ms Evans blamed human error for a mistake in converting euros to sterling.
LibDem MSP Mike Rumbles said Mr Ewing had “presided over a horrifying comedy of errors” and ought to be held accountable for “the havoc he is causing in the rural economy”.
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