ALEX Salmond will tomorrow use the same venue Margaret Thatcher set the Conservatives on the road to Euroscepticism to declare an independent Scotland would be an enthusiastic "lynchpin" member of the EU.
The First Minister will outline Scotland's markedly different approach to the EU in a speech to the College of Europe in Bruges. "Scotland shares and promotes the values of solidarity, freedom and democracy that are the heart of the European project," he will say.
In 1988, in one of the defining moments of her time as Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher used a speech at the College to end the Conservatives' reputation as the "party of Europe", and take them in a more hostile direction.
Keen to reassure other nations that the break up of the United Kingdom would not threaten EU stability, Salmond will stress the contributions an independent Scotland could make to the EU, focusing on energy and fishing.
With some of Europe's biggest fishing grounds and 12 national fleets in Scottish waters, he will tell his Belgian audience EU fisheries policy would "unravel without Scotland".
He will add: "One of the great issues facing Europe is the question of energy security. In this area Scotland is blessed. Scotland has fully 25% of Europe's offshore wind and tidal potential. We have 10% of the EU's wave potential. We have 60% of the EU's oil reserves."
A Scottish Tory spokesman said: "For all Mr Salmond asserts that Scotland is the lynchpin on Europe, there are many member states nervous about the threat of their own separatist movements.
"A vote for separation in September is a vote for uncertainty, doubt and erosion of all that Scotland holds as a constituent of the UK."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article