SNP Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson will set out his government’s plans for an independent Scotland to become an EU member state – pointing to “shared European values”.
Mr Robertson will highlight how an independent Scotland would trade with the rest of the UK and Europe and insist that EU membership would be of “immense value” to the nation after separation.
The Scottish Government is publishing an updated case for independence, despite the route to achieving separation looking bleak.
Ahead of the launch of the latest chapter in the policy papers, Mr Robertson claimed the success of independent EU countries like Scotland demonstrated the immense value of being part of the world's largest single market.
Mr Robertson suggested that Westminster's disastrous Brexit-based economic approach, supported by both Labour and the Conservatives, had failed Scotland and driven down living standards.
He added that by joining a market seven times the size of the UK in the EU, new opportunities would open up for people and businesses in Scotland, despite most of the country’s trade being done with the rest of the UK.
Read more: Scotland rejoining EU would put country at top table 'for first time'
Questions have been consistently raised about the ability of an independent Scotland to easily join the bloc, particularly over national debt a newly independent country is likely to carry.
But the latest paper in the Building a New Scotland series, to be published today, will say Scotland will use the tried and tested route to EU membership - the "article 49" process.
Read more: Scottish Government to launch independence in Europe paper
Mr Robertson said: "Independent EU countries like Scotland are wealthier and fairer than the UK, so with all our resources and talents why not Scotland?
"People in Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but as on so many other occasions our views have been ignored by Westminster.
"Both Labour and the Tories are happy to impose a disastrous hard Brexit on Scotland which the UK Government's own fiscal watchdog thinks will cut national income by 4% compared with EU membership - wiping around £100 billion from the UK economy and leaving people on average earnings £1,300 a year worse off.
"Today the Scottish Government is setting out an alternative direction for Scotland which will detail our shared European values, how we will trade with the rest of the UK and the EU, the immense value to Scotland of being a European Union member state and the contribution we would make to achieving the EU's goals.
Read more: Independence in Europe: Where now for Scotland’s EU aspirations?
"There will of course be challenges, and the tried and tested accession process to go through, but we can escape the costs of Brexit and build a new and better relationship with our friends on these islands: taking advantage of new opportunities as part of the EU and the world’s largest single market, which is seven times the size of the UK.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “People in Scotland want both their governments to be concentrating on the issues that matter most to them, like growing our economy, halving inflation and improving public services.
“We want to work constructively with the Scottish Government to tackle our shared challenges because that is what families and businesses in Scotland expect.
“This is not the time to be talking about distracting constitutional change.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel