HEALTH Secretary Alex Neil is walking into a euro-snub today as he takes the message on minimum alcohol pricing to Brussels.
Mr Neil was invited to an event organised by the European Public Health Alliance, the Royal College of Physicians and Eurocare.
However, MEPs involved in the event were shocked to discover European Commission staff had been ordered not to attend.
Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrat MEPs last night wrote on a cross-party basis to Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, to complain about the boycott.
They told Mr Barroso alcohol consumption involved "issues of concern and importance" and added: "It is to our surprise, therefore, that despite invitations to four of the European Commission services – Enterprise, Agriculture, Health and Consumers and Taxation – we were unable to secure attendance in any capacity."
The fact both Labour's Catherine Stihler and the SNP's Alyn Smith signed the letter, along with LibDem Rebecca Taylor, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, indicates concern at what has been seen as a diktat by the Commission telling staff not to engage in the meeting.
Mr Smith said it was hugely disappointing to hear there will be no staff from the Commission in attendance, adding that the event would have provided the perfect forum to discuss the issue openly.
He said: "This isn't a political matter, it's about the health and wellbeing of the whole of Europe as shown by the cross-party letter from myself and colleagues. Scotland is leading the way on what is a problem across big chunks of the EU, and for the commission to be so closed to dialogue is hugely concerning, and in fact unusual.
"I've never heard of any event on any subject being boycotted in this way."
Mr Neil said: "I welcome the opportunity to put forward Scotland's view on minimum pricing tomorrow. I'm pleased to see such support and interest from all areas of public health and MEPs.
"We remain steadfastly committed to the benefits which minimum unit pricing will bring."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article