SCOTLAND will host a major international conference of Europe’s independence movements on Saturday.
The conference will be held in Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh (with tickets on sale here) and will bring together at least 14 groups to discuss progress, make contacts and plan for the future.
“International solidarity does matter,” organiser and founder of pro-indy think tank Common Weal Robin McAlpine told The National.
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“It’s a chance to show them Scottish hospitality and a chance for us to create more solidarity across Europe's independence movement in our ongoing struggles to get democracy.”
Among the nations represented are Greenland, the Faroes, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Flanders, the Veneto, Sardinia, Sicily, South Tyrol, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Transylvania.
There will also be a representation from the north of England to update people on a number of different parties and initiatives taking place there.
Co-convener of the SIC Isobel Lindsay, previously said: “We are hosting this conference on behalf of the International Commission of European Citizens (ISEC), an EU-registered NGO promoting the rights of self-determination.
“The focus will be on the democratic rights of nations and regions in Europe and on the importance of respecting and promoting our socio-cultural distinctiveness.
“We need to strengthen our self-determination networks and learn from our varied experience and there will be a warm Scottish reception from our friends from so many different parts of Europe.”
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In addition to the conference there will be the signing of a declaration (below) that aims to send the message “that Europe is too centralised and there are many nations and regions which want either more autonomous power or full independence”.
There will also be a livestream of the conference, with higher quality filming of various segments of the conference too. The event will then be followed by a haggis supper and a ceilidh.
“You're not going to get these 15 nations in a room in Scotland again, not in the near future,” McAlpine said.
“We're all fighting the same fight against a very similar opponent. But we're all doing it on our own – and it's a mistake.
“Meeting people from other indy movements has helped me so much to understand the barriers and successes that have cropped up."
He added: “I want us to put on a good conference and show them all that independence in Scotland is live and well and that we are pushing hard to make progress.”
A full copy of the Edinburgh Declaration is below:
We are 15 nations and regions of Europe seeking either independence or greater autonomy. We believe that in the 2020s Europe faces a crisis of democracy and this view is increasingly widely held. There are three visions for the future of the continent. One is for greater centralisation across Europe, with domestic governments losing power in favour of a more powerful Brussels, moving towards a United States of Europe. One is for greater centralisation within nations through increasingly autocratic leadership, drawing democratic power away from collective decisionmaking and into powerful and increasingly unaccountable domestic governments. Both of these visions project a Europe with less democracy and more elite control. The third is a vision of a Europe of greater autonomy, greater citizen participation and more responsive government. It is a vision of autonomous nations and regions in a decentralised continent, working collegiately with each other where it makes sense but able to accept continental asymmetry with nations and regions comfortable in making their own decisions based on their own conditions of life and the will of their populations. It is a vision of greater participatory democracy and a vision of a Europe not of centralised control but of independent peoples working together for a better future for all of us. Ours is the only vision of Europe’s future which is based on more democracy, not less. It is the hopeful vision for our continent.
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