SCOTTISH business must rush to grasp the enhanced commercial opportunities that will present themselves when 10 new countries join the European Union next year, Elizabeth Holt, head of the European Commission Office in Scotland, said yesterday.
Holt was speaking at the Growing Europe Growing Opportunities conference in Glasgow, in which she addressed the representatives of more than 70 Scottish companies on the business opportunities that will result from the enlargement of the European Community.
Next May, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will join the European Union, bringing the total EU membership to 25 countries.
Some 55% of Scottish exports are already traded within the EU, making it a more than equal partner with the US in terms of Scottish business interest.
''This new Europe will offer huge opportunities for business, but the question is whose business?'', Holt asked.
''Will it be Scottish business or will it be the business community of elsewhere? Companies in other member states are already lining up to invest in these fast-growing economies.
''The 10 future member states who will join the EU have been transformed in the past few years into open market economies and already trade overwhelmingly with the union.
''Their business laws are now modelled on the same EU laws that apply here in the UK and elsewhere in the EU. Do businesses in Scotland realise just how much of an opportunity this situation offers them?''
Holt, who insisted the opportunities will be present whether the UK joins the single currency or not, said the largest impediment to Scottish business success in Europe was the ''tremendous lack of interest in the EU, both politically and among the general public''.
She said, however, that ''Scots are more pragmatic about Europe'' than their
counterparts elsewhere in UK.
''Europe is clearly far down the priority list of the government, which is obviously concerned with other issues at this time,'' Holt said.
''However, the European Union is the world's largest single market, and with 25 member states from May there will be more than 400 million consumers.
''This is full of potential in business terms.''
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