Bourgeois meets Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has completed a two-day visit to Scotland, including a meeting with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as well as contacts with other important partners.

The Flemish delegation visited Rosyth in Fife, at one end of an important goods sea route from Zeebrugge and subject of a €6 million investment by shipping company DFDS Seaways and Forth Ports. The delegation also visited test sites in the open sea off Orkney focused on developing technology to harness energy from waves. Ostend company Laminaria is also working on such technology.

Flanders and Scotland have a relationship that goes back a millennium – as shown by the prevalence in Scotland of the surname Fleming – and next year an exhibition of the Flemish masters Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck in the Scottish National Gallery by will be accompanied by an international conference on Scotland and the Flemish People. The general representation of the government of Flanders in the UK is co-organising both events.

Talks with Sturgeon touched on the upcoming referendum on the UK’s membership in the European Union; her party, SNP, is in favour of membership. Sturgeon, whose party enjoyed a landslide victory in Scotland in the general election this year, will also be defending her position in the Scottish parliament in May. Should she be re-elected as expected, she promised to pay a return visit to Flanders next year.

Photo: Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ©Dirk Waem/BELGA