News / Boden: EU exit will dominate SIC agenda for years
DEALING with the fallout from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union will “dominate the council’s agenda for several years to come”, SIC chief executive Mark Boden said on Wednesday.
Introducing a report on the council’s efforts through its Our Islands Our Future (OIOF) initiative with local authorities in Orkney and the Western Isles, Boden said it could prove an obstacle to progress on that front.
“Clearly the referendum result of last week is of the greatest possible political, constitutional and economic significance to each and every part of the United Kingdom,” he told a meeting of the Full Council.
“Dealing with that will dominate the council’s agenda for several years to come – issues around resources and priorities caused by that.”
It also seems certain to preoccupy the UK and Scottish governments for the foreseeable future, meaning “some of the conversations we might have hoped to have with them, with civil servants and ministers, we will not have”.
Boden said it was still “very early days” in terms of reacting to the referendum outcome, but it would have to watch how things develop over the next two years: “We simply cannot predict what the outcome of this will be.”
With the Shetland economy likely to face an impact, notably the fishing and agriculture industries, he said the SIC would “play its part in reacting to that and working to the best interests of the economy”.
Boden echoed the words of politicians across the board who have assured EU nationals here, and businesses and individuals who might be considering investing in or moving to Shetland, that they are very much welcome.
Councillor Jonathan Wills said that, having initially felt there was no point continuing to engage with Brussels, he now believes “we should continue to play our part in EU organisations, which we have done for over 40 years”.
He also suggested setting up a meeting between councillors, MP Alistair Carmichael and the region’s various MSPs “to discuss where we go from here”.
Political leader Gary Robinson said the successes of the OIOF campaign demonstrated there is “very much a need to take ourselves out of Shetland and engage with people if we’re ever going to get anywhere”.
Without doing so, he said, the SIC would not have been able to bring to a close the problem of its historic housing debt dating back to the 1970s and “we’d still be sitting here with that millstone around our neck”.
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