Europe

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Will we be in Europe?

Yes. We have been in the European Union for over 40 years. There is no mechanism in the European Constitution to expel 5.25 million citizens.

The new European Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker is “sympathetic” to an independent Scotland joining the EU.

A high-ranking EU official stated that Junker “would not want Scotland to be kept out” and “he’d be sympathetic as someone who is from a smaller country as he’ll understand the obstacles that can be put in the way of less powerful member states.”

An independent Scotland’s potential membership would be treated as a “special and separate case” to nations wanting to join from regions such as the Balkans that have yet to satisfy all the rules, a senior EU source stated.

Scotland would be “exempt” (from the new member application process) as it is already a signatory to core requirements for nation states in areas such as employment rights and equality legislation because of its 40-year membership of the EU as part of the UK.

Will Scotland be forced to use the Euro?

No. It is a matter of choice as to whether a country uses the euro. Sweden is a member of the EU, but does not use the euro.

At present, the euro is legal tender in 18 out of 28 European Union member states. Five non-EU countries also use the euro. These are Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Andorra and Montenegro. They are allowed to use the euro because it is a fully tradeable currency.

10 members of the European Union do not use the euro: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

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Won’t independence weaken our position in Europe?

No, in fact our position would be stronger. We currently have 6 Scottish MEP’s, but with independence we would have 12 or 13.

The new President of Europe is Jean-Claude Juncker, the ex-Prime Minister of Luxembourg, the least populated country in the European Union with only 465,000 inhabitants.

Scotland would be negotiating our position with the rest of Europe directly as equals, not diluted as ‘part of the UK’. Scotland has often lost out in European negotiations because what is best for Scotland has been ignored by Westminster.

When Ted Heath (former Conservative Prime Minister) was negotiating the EU membership rebate for the UK he told the negotiators to consider that Scottish fishing “in the wider UK context, must be regarded as expendable”.

Scotland doesn’t get its proper share of European funding. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding gives Westminster a lump sum which is then shared throughout the UK, but we don’t get what we are due. If we recieved the legal EU minimum we would get £325 million more but if that figure was the EU average the amount goes up to £652 million – and that is every year.

It is the same situation with fishing. As a result of being a low priority for the UK in EU negotiations, Scotland receives just 1.1% of European fisheries funding despite landing 7% of the European Union’s fish.

How will independence affect the support that Scottish farmers receive under Europe’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)?

As part of the UK, Scotland’s farmers receive the third lowest direct payment per hectare in the European Union.

Independent member states have benefitted from the European Union’s principle that no member state should receive less than the minimum EU average payment rate of €196 per hectare. Had Scotland been an independent member state when the latest CAP round was agreed, this principle would have meant gaining an additional €1 billion of support between 2014 and 2020.

CAP Table