We must get to know the faceless ones who decide our future

FOR all the brave pledges made by ministers about the future of Scotland's fishing industry, one thing is certain: it will not be decided at Holyrood or at Westminster, but in Brussels. The future of North Sea cod is to be the subject of an EU fisheries summit next month, where after years of discussion the fate of Scottish fishing fleets will be determined.

One possible outcome is that, to save stocks of cod from extinction, quotas of all species will be drastically reduced. There could even be a total ban. With it would go thousands of jobs, and the slow death of fishing communities. Ministers will bluster, the opposition will fulminate - to no effect. We have signed a treaty; the Common Fisheries Policy is unbreakable; the fishing boats will have to go.

We know, however, almost nothing about the men and women who will take that decision, the information on which it will be based, or the debates which have led up to it. Because the European Commission is a closed book to the average Scottish voter, there are no full-time Scottish correspondents to monitor the Council of Ministers, and the proceedings of the European Parliament are available only to determined anoraks. The normal scrutiny that we expect in a democratic institution will be absent.

Of course, there will be angry debates at Holyrood, but they will be full of nothing but sound, fury - and empty rhetoric. The Executive will say that it is making representations through the UK delegation. The Scottish Tories will announce that they are pressing for the scrapping of the fisheries policy. The Scottish Nationalists will announce that an independent Scotland would renegotiate the Treaty, which is the most absurd idea of all - the suggestion that a small, newly joined nation is in any position to shift one of the building blocks of Europe is simply laughable.

We cannot, however, continue to allow European decisions as fundamental as this to go through without a better understanding of who is taking them and how they will impact on our national life. At the last count, some 75% of the legislation affecting this country originated with European bills and directives. We knew next to nothing about almost all of them until they were passed into law. At that stage, protests - however shrill - are meaningless.

This week, a new think-tank will be launched to try to close this information gap. ThinkScotland describes itself as "a new online resource focusing on European affairs from a Scottish perspective". Chaired by Robert Kilgour, a Scottish businessman with an international company, it includes Tory Members of the European Parliament like Struan Stevenson and John Purvis, the Tory MSP Alex Fergusson and Professor Gavin Don, an Edinburgh financier.

Kilgour finds the detachment of Scotland from European politics deeply frustrating. "Despite the plethora of political representation in Scotland today, we don't get down to brass tacks enough when it comes to what's happening in Europe and how it affects our lives here," he says.

"There is currently a lack of opportunity for Scots to engage in European topics and issues, other than at the time of the elections to the European Parliament. I don't necessarily think that reflects the level of potential interest there is amongst the Scottish public to hear or say more."

Professor Don is more overtly Eurosceptic. He claims that the UK Parliament is embarrassed by the amount of power it has ceded to Europe, and points out that the EC is responsible for a raft of measures, from child car-seats to burdensome health and safety regulations which have profoundly changed our lives while offering us no opportunity to challenge them. "I think there should be a serious debate about whether there is a better alternative outside Europe altogether," he said.

Stevenson is more pragmatic. "The European rule-books are growing in size and all of them affect every citizen on a daily basis," he said. "We ignore that at our great peril. We must improve relations between European members and their Scottish counterparts. Other member states enjoy far better contacts with Brussels."

The time has come to lift our eyes from the Holyrood goldfish bowl and take in some of the big issues elsewhere that will change our lives to an extent we have still not begun to appreciate - like the 25% cut in the Single Farm Payment proposed, unbelievably, by Tony Blair, which would put hundreds of Scottish farmers out of business; like the European energy and environment policies that will govern decisions on nuclear or wind power; like the plethora of smaller directives which intrude into our daily life.

The future of the North Sea cod, and the outcome of the EU's decision about how best to conserve it, will be critical for the Scottish fishing industry. But the story for Scotland will not end there. We are part of a much bigger enterprise. It is high time we began to understand it.