SCOTTISH ambitions to rejoin the EU after independence have been given a boost after a group of 50 European politicians put their names to an open letter calling for a “swift, smooth, and orderly” transition to full EU membership.
The cross-party group including MEPs and MPs from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Greece, Hungary and Malta argues that Scotland would be “most welcome” as a full member of the EU if it votes for independence after Brexit.
“We regret that the UK’s government has chosen to follow the path of a ‘hard Brexit’ and has so far refused to properly take into account the preferences of Scottish citizens in the withdrawal process,” the letter says.
“Therefore, if Scotland were to become an independent country and decided to seek to maintain European Union membership, we offer our full support to ensure the transition is as swift, smooth, and orderly as possible.”
Green MSP Ross Greer, who organised the letter, said: “The only thing standing in Scotland’s way to forging links with Europe is the Westminster government. Our parliament has voted to give the people a choice over their own future and no Tory government at Westminster should stand in the way of that.”
Stephen Gethins MP, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, said: “As this letter shows, there is a lot of sympathy among our European friends and neighbours for Scotland’s position – the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, yet we are being dragged out of the world’s largest single market by a Tory government which we did not vote for.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, former First Minister Alex Salmond said the “tectonic plates” had shifted in Europe in the years since Scots rejected independence in 2014.
Earlier this week Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis said Madrid would not veto an independent Scotland’s attempts to join the EU, while German MEP and Angela Merkel ally Elmar Brok said such a process could be relatively speedy.
Salmond also predicted that Theresa May’s resistance to a second referendum “will crumble”.
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