Lang sees EC role for Scotland as a region

member of a new body representing the regions of Europe, and announcing

that two key meetings of European Community organisations would be

coming to Scotland.

His support for the new consultative body for the regions may seem

surprising, as he appeared far more suspicious of the concept during his

recent trip to Bavaria.

However, political observers believe that the Secretary of State is

using his Euro-enthusiasm to outflank support for devolution by

highlighting how much Scotland is gaining in Europe without any messy

changes in the current constitutional set-up. Mr Lang has denied that

this is his underlying motive.

His appeal to voters is that Scotland's role in Europe is quite

happily developing without requiring a separate Scottish parliament,

while at the same time Scotland is taking full advantage of the British

Government's influence in the Community. ''We can have the best of both

worlds,'' is how he puts it.

Moves to give the regions of Europe a stronger voice in the Community

are currently being debated by what is called the Political Union

Inter-Governmental Conference. Mr Lang, addressing the Scottish Council

Development and Industry's international forum in Gleneagles, told the

influential gathering yesterday: ''I look forward to Scotland playing a

major role in such arrangements.''

The proposal is to have within the Community an EC body with a

specific remit to represent the regions and to advise on regional

issues. It would be asked to give a view on Commission legislative

proposals which would have a particular impact on the regions before

they were agreed by the Council. It would also be free to put forward

its views on any other Community issue it felt strongly about.

Scottish Council delegates, including STUC general secretary Campbell

Christie, immediately asked Mr Lang who would represent Scotland on the

body and whether they would be elected to it, with suspicions being

expressed that the new set-up would not have sufficient clout.

Mr Lang told them that discussions were at an early stage and such

details still had to be worked out.

He warned, though: ''Let us be clear -- my Europe of the regions does

not mean all European regions having a standardised constitutional

structure. Nor does it mean fragmenting member states such as the UK.''

The two events that are coming to Scotland are a gathering of the 12

European environment ministers at Gleneagles, and the quaintly termed

COREPER which stands for the Committee of Permanent Representatives to

the European Community -- in other words the ambassadors to the EC. The

last such meeting caused quite a stir when the Dutch, during their year

of presidency, decided the ambassadors should fly thousands of miles to

Curacao, which they deemed to be part of the European Community as it is

a Dutch colony. The resultant high expenditure came in for some stiff

criticism.

Mr Lang also explained that the high profile heads of government

meeting which Mr Major has already announced will be held next year in

Edinburgh, is actually going to take place in Holyrood Palace, courtesy

of the Queen.

He believes the meeting will put Scotland at the centre of European

Community affairs at a historic point in Europe's development with the

start of the Single European Market. It will bring not only the

government heads to Scotland, but also their key officials and the

world's media.

The meeting will take place on December 11 and 12 next year.

All this European activity by Mr Lang is part of a strategy to show

that he and his team are fully exploiting the membership of the

Community on behalf of Scotland. In his short time as Secretary of State

he has been to the European Parliament, held talks with the President of

the European Commission, and hosted major European events in Scotland.

Scottish Office arrangements for training and personnel have been

overhauled so that officials are quickly learning how to deal with their

counterparts in Brussels.

In addition Scottish Enterprise has set up Scotland Europa and Britain

has for the first time put Scotland forward as the location for an EC

institution.

''Not bad for nine months work,'' he said modestly.

Indeed his normal reserve was dropped slightly as he urged

industrialists at the Gleneagles meeting: ''Scotland has always been at

its best when it has been outward looking. Let's look out towards the

new Europe and go for it.''