SNP still looking to join the euro
Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister
The SNP plans to join the euro in due course, if Scotland should separate from the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, made the statement just after First Minister’s Questions on 13/12/2012, during which Alex Salmond fielded “scaremongering” that Scotland would be forced into the euro. She said: “just like Sweden, we would not join the euro until and unless it was in Scotland’s interests to do so and we had satisfied the conditions for doing so.”
She was making a statement to the Scottish Parliament on an independent Scotland’s continuing membership of the European Union, in response to recent statements by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso that a separate Scotland would need to reapply to join the EU. Miss Sturgeon is more sure-footed than her First Minister and she gave a spirited explanation of the situation as seen from the SNP point of view. She made the statement in the context of the SNP’s commitment to join the EU.
Ms Sturgeon also said: “I look forward to engaging with other member states, the European Commission and the UK Government—if it will engage with us—on the arguments for Scotland being an independent country, because I think that those arguments are not just compelling, but unanswerable.” This shows how dogmatism has taken over her thinking. The arguments are only unanswerable if a majority of the people of Scotland vote for independence. They have not yet done so. This is the answer to Ms Sturgeon’s “unanswerable” arguments. Besides, there is another answer. The SNP are not offering the people of Scotland an independent country. The SNP is offering to replace one union – the UK – with another union – the EU. This is not independence.
The SNP plans to join the euro in due course, if Scotland should separate from the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, made the statement just after First Minister’s Questions on 13/12/2012, during which Alex Salmond fielded “scaremongering” that Scotland would be forced into the euro. She said: “just like Sweden, we would not join the euro until and unless it was in Scotland’s interests to do so and we had satisfied the conditions for doing so.”
She was making a statement to the Scottish Parliament on an independent Scotland’s continuing membership of the European Union, in response to recent statements by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso that a separate Scotland would need to reapply to join the EU. Miss Sturgeon is more sure-footed than her First Minister and she gave a spirited explanation of the situation as seen from the SNP point of view. She made the statement in the context of the SNP’s commitment to join the EU.
Ms Sturgeon also said: “I look forward to engaging with other member states, the European Commission and the UK Government—if it will engage with us—on the arguments for Scotland being an independent country, because I think that those arguments are not just compelling, but unanswerable.” This shows how dogmatism has taken over her thinking. The arguments are only unanswerable if a majority of the people of Scotland vote for independence. They have not yet done so. This is the answer to Ms Sturgeon’s “unanswerable” arguments. Besides, there is another answer. The SNP are not offering the people of Scotland an independent country. The SNP is offering to replace one union – the UK – with another union – the EU. This is not independence.