THE cost to the taxpayer of the Scottish Government's "euro czar" is expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds – but the final bill is still unclear.
Professor Andrew Scott from Edinburgh University's School of Law began working for the SNP administration on January 3, and his secondment will run for two years.
Some, most notably the Nationalists' opponents, will see his appointment as tacit acknowledgement that Scottish Government ministers have not been well-prepared on the important subject.
Labour said Prof Scott's role showed the SNP was "desperate" to end its blunders. The academic is the partner of SNP MSP Aileen McLeod.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, explained Prof Scott would provide advice on ministers' engagement with the European Union and said his counsel would be invaluable to them as they prepared to negotiate the terms of Scotland's entry to the EU, should Scots vote for independence in next year's referendum.
She said: "Andrew Scott is an extremely eminent academic and one of the leading experts on the European Union anywhere in Scotland.
"I am therefore absolutely delighted he has agreed to offer his considerable expertise to ministers in the run-up to the referendum. Professor Scott is a highly respected academic in this field and his help will be invaluable as we prepare to negotiate the terms of Scotland's continuing engagement with the EU from within following a 'yes' vote in the autumn of 2014."
Prof Scott said: "I am very pleased to be joining the Scottish Government on secondment to help deliver a European engagement strategy and to provide expertise on European Union institutions, treaties and policies that will underpin the Scottish Government's approach to defining options for the future."
The academic has acted as expert to various EC agencies, including the European Commission and the Statistical Office of the EU. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, he was lecturer in economics at Heriot-Watt University.
He is also a former joint editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies.
Asked how much Prof Scott would be paid, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Government told The Herald: "The agreement will see the Scottish Government reimburse Edinburgh University for the time Prof Scott spends on secondment, i.e. three days a week for the secondment period. The level of Prof Scott's salary is a matter for the university."
She added: "The Scottish Government has always had officials tasked with working on EU issues and has long had a Brussels-based office, pre-dating the current administration."
It is thought Europe is among the "work streams" on which Holyrood officials are working as they prepare various policy papers in the run-up to the White Paper on independence, which the Scottish Government is due to publish in November.
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