TODAY I am visiting Brussels - the location of the HQ of the European Union - for the first time since becoming First Minister.

It is an important visit, coming just days after the Tory government published its Bill for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.

It matters to Scottish jobs and our economy.

My message is a simple one - the EU is not perfect but Scotland's interests are best served by being a member.

Firstly, the imperfections.

Most people would agree that the EU is too bureaucratic, not transparent or democratic enough and that it often interferes too much in matters that are best left to national governments.

That's why the Scottish Government is in favour of sensible reforms that will allow countries to run their own affairs in areas where they know best and leave the EU to focus on areas where cooperation and joint action makes sense. But, crucially, we think these reforms should be argued for - and agreed - from within the EU.

A decision to take the UK - and as part of that, Scotland - out of the EU would, in my view, be against our national interests.

My reason for saying so is largely an economic one.

There are lots of jobs and investment in Scotland dependent on our membership of the EU single market.

There are around 2000 international companies based in Scotland - many of them are headquartered in other EU countries and others will be here because of the access Scotland gives them to the single market of all 28 EU nations.

Furthermore, almost half of our international exports go to other EU member states.

If we weren't in the single market, it would be much harder to do business in these countries.

And that would hit jobs. It is estimated that around 300,000 Scottish jobs are linked to EU exports.

Then there is the free movement of people that goes with EU membership.

Yes, immigration raises a number of legitimate issues that we should not shy away from and, again, we should not hesitate to propose reform where we think it is necessary.

But we should also remember that people who come to stay here from other EU countries make a net positive contribution to our economy - estimated at £20 billion across the UK in the last decade or so.

And free movement is not one way traffic - it also allows us to travel to other EU countries too.

The fact is that co-operation between independent countries - to our mutual advantage - is the way of the modern world.

Even if Scotland had voted Yes last year, it would still have been in our interest to be a full and active member of the EU.

Co-operating with neighbours across the EU also has benefits for our culture and our society,

So this is the positive case for continued EU membership that the Scottish government will argue in the months to come.

We will also argue that 16 and 17-year-olds and citizens from other EU countries who live in the UK should get the right to vote - just as they did in the independence referendum.

To deny people the right to vote in a referendum that has a direct bearing on the country they live in and contribute to would, in my view, be wrong.

And, lastly, we will seek to guard against the prospect of Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will. Clearly, the population of England is much bigger than the populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

That means if England votes to leave the EU, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could find themselves outside even if one or all of us had voted to stay in.

The way to avoid that happening is to have the kind of 'double majority' rule that many federal countries insist on. What that would mean is that the UK could only leave the EU if each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted to do so.

It would mean, quite simply, that each member of the UK family of nations would have an equal voice and that Scotland - or Wales or Northern Ireland - couldn't just be outvoted by our bigger neighbour.

The issue of our EU membership is an important one.

I hope it is debated openly and passionately in the months ahead - it deserves to be.

I hope that it will lead to positive changes in how the EU is run.

But I hope Scotland and the UK vote to stay, because I strongly believe that it is in our interests to do so.