Alex
Salmond’s plans for a separate Scotland’s entry into the EU have been
branded unlawful by a former legal head of the EU Council. Scottish
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP has accused the First Minister of
misleading the public on what would happen to the country’s EU
membership under independence.
The
SNP have continually claimed they would be able to jump the queue into
Europe by using article 48 instead of going through article 49 – the
route used by every other accession country to gain entry. This
claim was contained in their White Paper, and at last December’s
European and External Affairs Committee, Deputy First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon said on five separate occasions that nobody had questioned
whether this is “a valid and sensible route to take”. But
a new submission to the same committee compiled by Jean-Claude Piris,
the former Director General of the Legal Service of the EU Council,
reveals that “it would not be legally correct to try and use article
48 for the admission of Scotland as a member of the European Union”.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP said: “Once again, the First Minister has been caught red-handed trying to mislead the people of Scotland on Europe. Alex
Salmond pretended he had legal advice on what a separate Scotland’s
position within the EU would be when none actually existed, and he even
spent public money going to court trying to hide this fact.
“Thoroughly
discredited, he then attempted to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the
White Paper, claiming he had found a new route in. Now,
the position set out by one of Europe’s leading legal experts is
crystal clear – the SNP’s plan to gain entry into the EU under
separation is unlawful.This
blows Alex Salmond’s European case right out of the water and
contradicts everything he and his deputy have been telling the people of
Scotland. The
public are fed up with these half-truths and assertions and the First
Minister needs to come clean on the true consequences of independence.”
