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As you may have gathered by my attempt at French, the key premise for setting up the proposed group is that I am a lifelong Francophile. More broadly, thinking about cross-party groups in this place, the activities that we undertake and the global context that we are in, I believe that we need to think about our outreach and our relationships with other parts of the world, particularly as the globe faces points of political crisis. Some of the challenges that are being faced around the world are also being faced in France, which I think is a country that is worthy of the attention of, and being engaged with by, the Scottish Parliament.

There are, of course, historical links. France is Scotland’s oldest ally—that is a relationship and an alliance that goes back hundreds of years. More importantly, Scotland enjoys substantial economic links with France. France is the fifth-largest destination for outbound exports from Scotland, and Scotland is a geography that has attracted significant French capital. Some 160 French-owned companies that generate more than £8 billion in turnover have invested in Scotland. For example, Chivas Brothers represents 25 per cent of Pernod Ricard’s globally invested capital. Further, EDF has made significant investments in offshore renewables and other parts of the energy sector—I know that the convener will be interested in those investments. Perhaps most recently, we have seen the investment by VINCI Airports in Edinburgh airport.

For the historical and economic reasons that I have outlined, I think that there is good reason to have a forum in this place that looks at our relationship with France, at how we can build on those cultural relationships and how we can build understandings. Further, if you look at my other cross-party group memberships, you will see that I am particularly interested in how we can use cross-party groups as a vehicle to host people from other geographies with interests in Scotland.

The final point that I want to make is a more cultural one. I am very concerned about the decline in the number of young people taking modern languages qualifications in schools. I am interested in how we can improve cultural awareness and encourage people to learn French. For a long time in our history, French was the primary language that people learned in schools, and I think that we should try to encourage people to pick up French at any point in their lives. I just bumped into a colleague who told me that, every Tuesday evening, they take French language classes at the consulate on the High Street. Perhaps we can encourage other members to do that sort of thing, too.

With that, I will stop. I am happy to take questions.

We can expect to have at least three or four formal meetings before the next session of Parliament, which I think would give us a good opportunity to help to shape some of the discussions in the lead-up to the election. Matters of economic growth, investment and geopolitics are very apposite at this time.

I think that there is time to do things and to have meetings that could be useful and substantive.

That is a really good point. I am a member of other cross-party groups that have a country focus: I think that they must have a relationship with Governments. The consul general, if there is one, will be invited to meetings but is not a member of the group and does not provide the secretariat. That is the difference. They are invited to provide some input—absolutely—but they do not determine the agenda. That is the distinction that I would draw.

You are right to point out that we are looking at parliamentary relationships, but I think that the interesting issue with France is what happens at the sub-national level. Forty years ago, France embarked on a quite radical process of devolution from what was a very centralised unitary state. I think that there are lessons that we can learn from the French regions, both historically and recently, with the creation of the unitary authority in Lyon. I am thinking about administrative links as well as parliamentary links, but understanding the difference between Government and those institutional links is important.

Yes. That aspect is very much being driven by this individual and his eagerness, and I am very happy to accommodate him.

Elsewhere in the paperwork, the individual alludes to relationships with the Franco-Scottish Society. I think that we will need to look at how the secretariat works as we move forward. I know from the scars that I bear from other cross-party groups that that is the critical link, so we will need to reflect on the issue quite early on. If he has capacity, that will be fantastic, but I think it would be best if the work of the secretariat were borne by an organisation.

Sure. My remarks about the secretariat are born out of what we attempted with the cross-party group on the USA, which, frankly, did not work. It is really important that an organisation takes that work forward.

I will be very frank with the committee about my experience with cross-party groups. For a start, I did not seek to reconstitute the cross-party group on social sciences from the previous parliamentary session. I do not think that there is any harm in looking at whether there is any appetite to establish an agenda, but if there is no such appetite, there is no harm in winding up cross-party groups or not continuing them into new parliamentary sessions. I will be very comfortable if that is the case with this proposed group, but I think that there are good reasons to explore whether there is an appetite for it. The window of time that we have before the election will allow us to establish that, and then we will take a view.

Merci beaucoup, et à bientôt.

I would like to get the group up and running to establish its viability. We are close to the next parliamentary election and, as we look to what the group might seek to do in the next parliamentary session, under the stewardship of whoever is here to take it forward, I think that building relationships between the groups, possibly with joint meetings, might be fruitful.

Can you clarify? Are you suggesting that the enterprise agencies could support in that, perhaps by co-ordinating or providing shared services?

Could you illustrate the point that you just made about areas where Scottish Enterprise has moved away because of the adoption of the mission approach? Could you give some examples of that?

Highlands and Islands Enterprise, including in its previous guise as the Highlands and Islands Development Board, has been in this line of business for a long time. Indeed, you have a legacy of investing in such projects reaching back over 70 years or more. Do you have a corporate view, looking backwards as well as forwards, about the right structure to sit across such funding? Does it play nicely with your other aims and objectives?