Alex Salmond’s plans for independence have received another blow, this time over membership of the European Union.
Another day, another nail in the coffin of Alex Salmond’s plans for independence – this time over membership of the European Union.
According to the plans published by ministers in Scotland on Tuesday, as an existing constituent part of the EU an independent Scotland would, according to the SNP, simply continue to remain within it if it opted for independence. The paper states:
“Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union provides the legal basis, and defines the procedure, for a conventional enlargement where the candidate country is seeking membership from outside the EU. As Scotland joined the EU in 1973 this is not the starting position from which the Scottish Government will be pursuing independent EU membership. Article 49 does not appear to be the appropriate legal base on which to facilitate Scotland’s transition to full EU membership.”
These words, however, have now been cast into considerable doubt following comments made by the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who himself faces a separatist movement in the region of Catalonia.
Speaking yesterday during a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande, the Prime Minister made clear that Scotland should not expect to be given an automatic place within the EU. He explained:
“It’s very clear to me, as it is for everybody else in the world, that a country that would obtain independence from the EU would remain out of the EU, and that is good for Scottish citizens to know and for all EU citizens to know.”
The Prime Minister continued by saying that the treaties “apply only to member states that have agreed and ratified them, and if a part of one member state cleaves from the member state, it converts itself into a third part with relation to the EU. That is the law and that law applies.”
Responding to the comments on Newsnight Scotland last night, SNP finance secretary John Swinney reiterated the contents of the independence paper, explaining:
“We are members of the European Union.
“Once Scotland votes for independence – a Yes vote in September 2014 – we remain still within the European Union and the day of independence doesn’t happen until 2016.
“So we are doing this from within the European Union as part of our membership.”
Declaring the Spanish PM’s word to have added considerably more uncertainty around the SNP’s proposals, head of the Better Together campaign Alistair Darling responded:
“This is another blow to Alex Salmond’s claims that nothing would change if we vote to go it alone. The Spanish Prime Minister has just made it clear that everything would change.
“We now know what the position of the Spanish government would be if we vote for independence.”
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19 Responses to “SNP EU plans in serious doubt”
Selohesra
30% of UK income tax is raised from just 1% of the population – I wonder if that 1% is mostly resident outside Scotland and what that means to the income tax burden that will fall on ordinary people in Scotland
uglyfatbloke
It not so simple a situation as all that and it is not at all certain that vetoes from anyone would de relevant. The EU does not have a structure of any kind in relation to the dissolution of a member state, The Spanish PMs statement is worthless; it is part of internal Spanish politics – specifically the Catalan independence campaign. He’s not an expert on the EU constitution and has no understanding at all of the constitution of the UK…there again nor does Cameron….nor most people actually, which says something rather sad about the state of the teaching of history in our schools. The UK is the product of the Treaty of 1707 between England and Scotland (constitutionally Wales is a principality of England and NI is a province of the UK). However much the gnats may say otherwise, their aim is the dissolution of the 1707 Treaty. Strictly speaking ‘Alfred’ (below) is quite right, though any country can call itself whatever it likes, so the name ‘UK’ could be retained. The key thing here is the (unlikely) dissolution of the 1707 Treaty, The Acts of Union are not actually germane at all; they did nothing more than abolish the existing English and Scottish parliaments to make way for the new ‘British’ parliament.
The European Commission and Parliament could devise a mechanism for excluding a state or territory from the EU, but that would have to be signed off unanimously by the member states….not much chance of that with any of the states that fish in Scottish waters.
OTH someone should be calling gnats out on EU membership anyway. It is not absolutely clear that Scotland is best served by being in the EU or that negotiating from within would be better than negotiating from outside the EU.
Cameron’s concern of course is that his government would also have to enter EU negotiations over – among other things – European Parliament representation, the EU rebates, the CAP and he would not have such a strong lever with fishing rights,
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Of course the EU has to give in to Scottish demands. Otherwise Scotland would leave the EU. That’s because Scotland is democratic, unlike England which is a dictatorship.