‘WHAT a privilege and honour it is to have been elected as the first SNP MSP for the Cowdenbeath constituency.
As I said following the declaration at the Count in the Rothes Halls in the early hours of Friday May 6, the local SNP team ran an entirely positive campaign and engaged with thousands upon thousands of people on their doorsteps in every community in the constituency.
We offered a vision of the Scotland we want to build and we offered hope that Scotland can indeed be a better country for future generations.
I would wish to thank all those who put their trust in me and the SNP and I pledge to represent assiduously all of my constituents and to serve them to the best of my ability.
In that regard, I will continue to hold regular surgeries and will be out and about at events across the constituency. In the last week, I attended a public meeting in St Serf’s, in Lochgelly, about the campaign for a new Medical Centre which I very much support. I also was delighted to have been able to attend the official opening of the new Kelty Community Centre on Friday. What a fantastic asset for the village.
On the wider stage, between now and the next time it will be my turn for a column in this paper, we have the small matter of the EU Referendum.
In what sometimes feels like a previous life, I graduated in European Law from Glasgow University and following postgraduate studies in Bologna and Amsterdam, spent some 10 years as a lawyer based in Brussels.   My mother, of course, spent 24 years as a Member of the European Parliament, ending her time there as the longest serving MEP, before declaring the re-convening of the Scottish Parliament as the senior MSP.
I know that there are many shortcomings in the way in which the European Union operates, but I also believe that it is an institution that we should be seeking to improve, not wanting to leave.
Whether it is access to markets, freedom of movement, support for infrastructure projects, co-operative action on global issues such as the environment, the huge range of improvements in guaranteed rights for workers or many other issues, the EU has been and can be a positive force.  And while I would far rather see Scotland represented at Member State level than misrepresented - as we can often be by the UK Government, I am in absolutely no doubt that we are far, far better off inside than out.
I can be contacted at my constituency office at 113 High Street, Cowdenbeath KY4 9QA. Tel: 01383 611067; Email: Annabelle.Ewing.msp@parliament.scot
My next surgery is Friday June 3 from 12 noon till 1.30pm in my Constituency office’.