THE SNP Government has been accused of maintaining a deafening silence over the eurozone crisis and how it would affect an independent Scotland.
Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran said the developments in Europe over the past few days had left the SNP "confused and weak".
"They cannot even tell us what currency a separate Scotland would use," she said.
Ms Curran claimed that SNP MEP Alyn Smith had, in a radio interview, said the party's policy was to join the euro and it was "not the case" the UK position would be worse if it was in the currency zone.
She said: "With so many unanswered questions over the SNP's attitude to Europe – what would the conditions of membership be for a separate Scotland, what would be the cost of joining the euro, how much would Scotland have to pay to the bailout fund, what would the impact be on interest rates here – no wonder the SNP are desperate not to talk about this issue.
"Their position is confused and weak – they cannot even tell us what currency a separate Scotland would use. As the economic clouds gather, Scots deserve clear answers to all these questions and more.
"The silence from the SNP on the eurozone crisis has been deafening."
The Scottish Conservative Party's constitution spokesman, David McLetchie, also joined in the attack following Mr Smith's comment that the UK was "sinking a lot faster than the eurozone is" and that the deal reached within the zone was "appalling news" for the UK and Scotland.
Mr McLetchie said: "Alyn Smith has confirmed the worst-kept secret in Scottish politics. Alex Salmond and the SNP are the euro's biggest cheerleaders.
"The SNP would march an independent Scotland into full euro membership. They would give away control over interest rates to Bonn, control over financial services to Brussels and land Scotland with a multi-billion euro headache. By contrast, the stance taken by our Prime Minister has been good for Scotland and good for Britain."
LibDem leader Willie Rennie also accused the SNP of failing "to address the big issues in Europe." He said: "They pretend that it is nothing to do with an independent Scotland and that we would be insulated from all these types of problems. This isn't the case."
However, a spokesman for Finance Secretary John Swinney said the issue of the euro would be decided by a referendum of the people "only when the economic circumstances were right" and until such time an independent Scotland would retain sterling as its currency.
He added: "The reality is that there are nearly 40 countries in the world in currency unions, and they are all independent nations. Independence will give Scotland control of the economic and fiscal levers we need to strengthen recovery, boost growth and create jobs."
Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said that on the question of fiscal sovereignty it was clear one of the consequences of the eurozone crisis was that if a country was in a monetary union, there had to be a degree of fiscal co-ordination and that would be an issue for Scotland whether it was monetary union within the UK or with Europe.
He said it was not the case that the eurozone crisis meant countries lost all their fiscal autonomy, or that within the rules they could do "more or less what they want".
Mr Curtice also said a newly independent Scotland would have a similar gross domestic product to debt ratio as the UK, so unless there were further oil discoveries or unless renewable resources really took off Scotland would not necessarily have "that much fiscal freedom" because of the debt overhang.
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