Brussels, 20/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The secretary of state for Scotland in the UK government, Alistair Carmichael, says that independence for Scotland is a mirage and that the closer one gets, the less clear it becomes. He was speaking in Brussels on Monday 20 January at a CEPS conference (Centre for European Policy Studies) on the consequences for Europe of a yes vote in the Scottish referendum on independence in September 2014. He was speaking after the British government published a document on Friday 17 January on the benefits for Scotland of being part of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat, said that it would be risky and uncertain vis-à-vis Europe for Scotland to become independent because leaving the UK would mean leaving the EU as well.
There are no legal foundations for the Scottish nationalists' idea that it might be possible to automatically rejoin Europe, argued Carmichael. The EU is based on treaties linking its member states by contract, and Scotland would have to renegotiate the conditions of this contract, as is currently done, for example, for fishing quotas. Leaving the UK means leaving the EU, and then fighting to return on the same terms but from a weaker starting point, said Carmichael, adding that this was not in Scotland's interests. The benefits of the opt-out from Schengen, the euro, various aspects of the common agricultural policy and common fisheries policy, the division of the structural funds and the calculation of the British rebate from the EU budget would no longer be guaranteed. The British government's working document said that, without the British rebate, if Scotland were to become a member state, it would have to pay an additional €2.2 million under the current programming period, or an extra €840 per household. The specific situation of Scotland would not necessarily be taken account of any more for sector-specific policies because the 28 member states are unlikely to want to renegotiate such things, he said.
Carmichael said that the nationalists' predicted speedy timeline for the talks on rejoining the EU is untenable. Independence would be announced in March 2016, just 18 months after a yes vote, which would put the first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, in a very weak negotiating position, warned Carmichael, explaining that, in any negotiation, the more you concede, the more likely you are to be able to get a rapid agreement.
Carmichael said it was clear in his mind that Scotland got more from Europe with the United Kingdom, and would continue to do so in the future if they stayed together. (MD/transl.fl)