An independant Scotland will have to reapply to EU

System

It would be amusing if Salmond finally managed to join the EU just as the EU was breaking up. Last one to leave pays the bill.

BobQ

The situation of citizens would need to be resolved quickly because many Scottish people live and work in the rest of the UK and vice versa.

I suspect the situation of most existing UK nationals would be easily resolved since it would make sense for any Scottish born person living in or working in the rest of UK to have an automatic right to retain UK citizenship if they wished to do so. I imagine Scotland would grant a similar automatic right to non-Scots living/working in Scotland.

The situation of a Scot living/working in the another EU nation might be more problematic but I imagine they might have to rely on the fact they were born in an EU country.

sss555s

It would have to be the same as the Republic of Ireland who left the UK in 1922.

zagubov

The EU needs to be careful it doesn't turn a Europhilic Scotland into a Eurosceptic country. It needn't reapply for membership at all. In fact it would probably be easier to join EFTA into which it's probably a better fit.

If it somehow manages to escape the EU in a way that Greenland couldn't without fancy negotiations it should call their bluff and use the EFTA route into the EEA. Save a fortune and be in an organisation run by the Swiss instead of the bloated Brussels beaurocracy.

At least they sound more welcoming to Scotland, are of reasonable size, and seem to be efficiently run. The UK used it before as a waiting room for joining the EU. I sometimes wonder if we should have left it.

Come on Alex, tell them you'll hold a referendum on EU membership after the independence referendum. When Angela has to get her oil from that nice Mr Putin she'll give Scotland the right answer.

I wonder if the EU would rather have Spain or Catalonia as a member if it came to a choice. :cool:

Graham_Devon

zagubov wrote: »

The EU needs to be careful it doesn't turn a Europhilic Scotland into a Eurosceptic country.

This is something I have seen before.

But I have to ask....why?

Why would the EU really care? It's Scotland that cares, and Scotland which appears to be suggesting the EU should be careful on what it does. Certainly feel were taking a self importance stance in many of these "everyone will work our way" when it comes the the rest of the UK, EU, Nato, Security Council etc.

zagubov

Graham_Devon wrote: »

This is something I have seen before.

But I have to ask....why?

Why would the EU really care? It's Scotland that cares, and Scotland which appears to be suggesting the EU should be careful on what it does. Certainly feel were taking a self importance stance in many of these "everyone will work our way" when it comes the the rest of the UK, EU, Nato, Security Council etc.

Because it'll shrink a little - not as much as it did when Greenland left (apart from area) but by as much as if Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus all left.

No big deal, mind. 10 % of Germany's oil and about 25% of Spain's fish, plus coal, gas, uranium (nobody remembers this out loud), 1/12 of the world's laptops etc, 5 of the top universities and one of the world's top four per-capita producers of cited scientific papers.

For Europe, it would be a bit more like lopping off some fingers rather than say removing a tumour.;)

Everything won't work their way. But it's got choices. NATO needs it more than it needs NATO- ask Ireland. And the EU's got troubles. Might be better to watch from the outside while it settles them and think about joining later if and only if all's well.:beer:

And does Scotland care about Europe? Let's wait and see.

BobQ

zagubov wrote: »

Because it'll shrink a little - not as much as it did when Greenland left (apart from area) but by as much as if Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus all left.

No big deal, mind. 10 % of Germany's oil and about 25% of Spain's fish, plus coal, gas, uranium (nobody remembers this out loud), 1/12 of the world's laptops etc, 5 of the top universities and one of the world's top four per-capita producers of cited scientific papers.

For Europe, it would be a bit more like lopping off some fingers rather than say removing a tumour.;)

Everything won't work their way. But it's got choices. NATO needs it more than it needs NATO- ask Ireland. And the EU's got troubles. Might be better to watch from the outside while it settles them and think about joining later if and only if all's well.:beer:

And does Scotland care about Europe? Let's wait and see.

I suggest they should not overplay their hand! I am sure they will be welcome in the EU provided that they do not upset the other nations with their posturing or frighten industry to relocate to within the EU.

zagubov

BobQ wrote: »

I suggest they should not overplay their hand! I am sure they will be welcome in the EU provided that they do not upset the other nations with their posturing or frighten industry to relocate to within the EU.

Well I don't think being "dependent" helped them save much of their industry from relocating since the 70s.

They'd be welcome all right in the EU, EFTA, EEA, NATO, and even the Sterling zone. Let's stop kidding ourselves. As I mentioned, losing Scotland would be more like losing a healthy body part than having a wart or a tumour removed. And that's in a body that's got too many unhealthy parts, an economist might say.

I think it's the ailing EU that's in danger of overplaying its hand. The UK's got its doubts about the desirablity of the EU and so has Scotland. If the UK was smaller I'd recommend it leave the EU and join EFTA but I'm not sure it's not too big to fit in there. Scotland, that's another story.

NATO needs a northern partner, too. Scotland's not going to ask much except that its main population centre's kids bodies don't act as nuclear human shields.

IveSeenTheLight

Can I refer you all to this thread which has discussed much of these topics previously.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3723317

Generali

Graham_Devon wrote: »

This is true, but you would also be stripping the Scots of their EU Citizenships.

A lot goes with that! Including treaties etc.

Nicola Sturgeon has basically suggested that a new independant Scotland would negotiate with the EU on Scottish terms. There is also the question of NATO, which, reading between the lines, Scottish politics is damaged on, and again, althought he SNP believe they would automatically just rejoin, other Scots, outside of the SNP suggest it's not quite as easy for that and they are taking the Scottish people for granted.

I would imagine that Scotland would have a strong hand when negotiating with NATO as they have 100% ice free ports close to the Arctic.

With the EU? Meh, prolly rather less. There are 5,000,000 Scots and nobody except perhaps rugby fans is even really certain of where Scotland is.

Speaking of Scotland, well done to Bradford on beating Ars**al. Bradford is in Scotland right? It must be jolly close if not.