Claims that the Executive could reclassify an order for fisheries
protection vessels as military, thereby making them exempt from EU
procurement rules, and potentially saving jobs at the beleaguered
Ferguson shipyard, is “highly contentious”, according to an expert in
EU law.
Catriona Munro, partner at leading Scottish law firm Maclay Murray
& Spens and head of their EU and competition department, spoke to Holyrood about
comments by MSPs that fisheries protection boats could be reclassified
as “grey ship” – a term that designates military vessels.
Ferguson staff were told last week that as many as 99 of the 126
firm’s employees are facing redundancy, so MSPs are looking for ways to
save the yard, Scotland’s last shipbuilders. Ferguson had previously
bid for a Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency vessel and lost out to a
Devon based firm, but the deal was frozen by Fisheries Minister Ross
Finnie.
However, Munro pointed out that the wording in the EC treaty
specifies that to be exempt from competition rules, products must be
“for specifically military purposes”. “It is very difficult to see how
you could shoehorn a fisheries vessel into that purpose.”
Munro said that, while in the past EU member states may have taken a
broad view of the wording of the treaty, in December last year, the EU
sent out a communication saying that the definition had to be more
narrowly construed. “The communication was precisely to point out that
they know what’s been going on,” she said.
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