EUROPE: PLEASE INCLUDE SCOTLAND IN ENLARGEMENT CONVERSATION
To European citizens and MEPs in the next European Parliament
In the 2016 Brexit Referendum, not a single Scottish district voted to leave, and Scotland as a whole voted by a 62% majority to remain in the EU. In subsequent years, the Scottish Parliament rejected the withdrawal process at every stage, and every opinion poll and election confirmed Scotland's firm desire to stay in the EU.
Despite all that, Scotland was taken out of the European Union alongside the rest of the UK – which is supposed to be a voluntary union of nations –without so much as an attempt to compromise on the part of Westminster.
We citizens of Scotland were taken out of the EU against our will.
We no longer have a voice in EU institutions.
Please help us get that voice back!
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To:
To European citizens and MEPs in the next European Parliament
From:
[Your Name]
We the undersigned are citizens of Scotland. Due to Brexit, we no longer have a voice in EU institutions. But we consider ourselves to be Europeans. And we think Scotland’s future should be as an independent nation within the EU.
The EU is about to change significantly over the coming decade. From Ukraine to the Balkans, many countries aspire to join. The EU has therefore tasked itself with developing a roadmap for enlargement, which will be high up on its agenda in the coming months and years.
The European Parliament will play an important role in this process. However, the election of the new EU Parliament in May 2024 is the first in which Scottish citizens will not be able to vote. We have been deprived of our voice in the EU because of Brexit, a catastrophic mistake of historical proportions that we Scots vehemently rejected. In the Brexit Referendum of 2016, Scotland voted by a 62% majority to stay in the EU. Ever since, Scottish elections and opinion polls have left no doubt that an even larger majority of Scots still reject Brexit and embrace a future in Europe.
We thank all Europeans who would like the EU to welcome Scotland re-joining as an independent state. As a historic European country and as a part of the EU for 47 years, we believe Scotland has long fulfilled the core requirements of an open, free and law-based society. We are also confident that as an advanced economy, Scotland will be able to help make the larger accession process a success as a full participant in the expansion of the EU.
In view of this, we call on European citizens and MEPs in the next European Parliament to remember us, consider our clear desire to rejoin the EU as an independent country and to keep Scotland part of the conversation on a democratic, open and fair EU enlargement.
We left the European flag flying outside the Scottish Parliament, not out of nostalgia but out of hope that we will one day see the Scottish flag raised outside the European Parliament.
As we Scots continue to proudly stand with Europe, we ask Europeans to remember us and include Scotland in the conversation on EU enlargement.