ALEX Salmond's assertion that an independent Scotland would automatically become a member of the European Union is set to come under more fire next week when constitutional experts give evidence before MPs on the "foreign policy implications of and for a separate Scotland".
One witness who will appear before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee is Jo Murkens, a senior law lecturer at the London School of Economics, who has argued there is "no automatic right" for a new Scottish nation to be a member and that it would require the unanimous backing of EU members.
"An independent Scotland would have to join the EU as a new accession state, a process which could take many years," he said, adding an independent Scotland, like all new accession states, would be obliged to join the euro.
Professor Robert Hazell, director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, has also emphasised "most international lawyers say Scotland would have to reapply".
The First Minister recently insisted: "Scotland is not an accession state, we've been members of the EU for almost 40 years. There would have to be negotiations but the crucial point is they would take place from within the context of the EU."
Mr Salmond told MSPs he would set out the case for Scotland's automatic membership of the EU in an independence White Paper in November 2013.
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