{"id":303270,"date":"2017-04-11T19:52:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T18:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/independent-scotland-would-be-most-welcome-in-eu-say-european-politicians\/"},"modified":"2017-04-11T19:52:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T18:52:23","slug":"independent-scotland-would-be-most-welcome-in-eu-say-european-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/independent-scotland-would-be-most-welcome-in-eu-say-european-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent Scotland would be \u2018most welcome\u2019 in EU, say European politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Scottish parliamentarians were told their nation would be \u201cmost welcome\u201d in the European Union if it were to vote for independence from the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

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The announcement came in an open letter signed by 50 European politicians, including 26 MEPs and members of both national and regional governments in Germany, Greece, Spain, Belgium and Ireland.<\/p>\n

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Read more<\/p>\n


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\u201cAs elected representatives from across the European Union we have been heartened by your support for a Europe which is united in pursuit of progress and not divided by fear and self-interest,\u201d<\/em> the letter begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy and mutual respect are at the heart of the European project and so, whilst we are saddened by the vote of a small majority for the United Kingdom to leave the EU, we respect this as a democratic decision of UK citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that this was not your choice however and that Scotland voted strongly to remain within the EU. The question of Scotland\u2019s constitutional future, and your relationships with the UK and the EU are for the people of Scotland to decide. It is not our place to tell Scotland what path you should take. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret that the UK\u2019s government has chosen to follow the path of a \u2018hard Brexit\u2019 and has so far refused to properly take into account the preferences of Scottish citizens in the withdrawal process. Therefore, if Scotland were to become an independent country<\/a> and decided to seek to maintain European Union membership, we offer our full support to ensure the transition is as swift, smooth, and orderly as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cScotland would be most welcome as a full member of the European Union, with your five million European citizens continuing to benefit from the rights and protections we all currently enjoy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Scotland was the strongest supporter of Remain in the Brexit referendum of last June, with 62 percent of the population voting to stay in the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in Scotland were told to vote against independence if they wanted to stay in the EU and now we know how wrong that was. Independence is the only way<\/a> to secure a European future for Scotland,\u201d<\/em> said Scottish Greens\u2019 external affairs spokesperson Ross Greer MSP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: 11 Apr, 2017 16:20 Scottish parliamentarians were told their nation would be \u201cmost welcome\u201d in the European Union if it were to vote for independence from the United Kingdom. The announcement came in an open letter signed by 50 European politicians, including 26 MEPs and members of both national and regional governments in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-303270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}