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Tuesday, 28 November 2006 |
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Today’s announcement that Scottish Power has agreed to the proposed takeover by Spanish giant Iberdrola has sent shockwaves through the Scottish economy. Workers throughout Scotland and especially Glasgow, where Scottish Power has its headquarters and many staff were reported to be very concerned by the move. Many felt they were being kept in the dark and were worried for their jobs. Analysts have predicted that there will be a big shake up of Scottish Power and this has lead to the fear of thousands of job losses at Glasgow’s headquarters.
Sandra White MSP for Glasgow has today asked the first Minister to address Parliament and state where the Executive stands on this issue.
“People need to know what the Executive is going to do about this. They can’t just sit on their hands and say it’s got nothing to do with them. We’re talking about one of Scotland’s biggest companies and Scotland’s leading energy supplier,” Sandra said.
“This is something of national importance to Scotland and must be debated in the Scottish Parliament. This really calls into question the powers we have to scrutinise things like this. Everyone in Scotland whether they agree or not with the takeover will agree that Scotland should have the power to investigate something which clearly affects Scotland”
Sandra has also asked for the issue to be debated in the Parliament. The whole issue is seen to call into question the blurry line between devolved and reserved matters with the economy in a devolved matter but competition law not.
Iberdrola’s bid comes on the back of other recent acquisitions by Spanish companies and has been deemed unfair due to Spanish laws which subsidise the buying of foreign companies.
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