Scots in the EU

Published on 11/09/2012 00:00

Your article (10 September) relating to the fact that the European Union citizenship of people in Scotland may be up for negotiation post-independence requires some clarification.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has suggested that in the event of a secession of part of an EU member state, the solution to the issue of EU citizenship would have to be “found and negotiated within the international legal order”. This was in a response to a question submitted by Italian MEP Maria Bizzotto, and related to what might happen in the event of Catalonia seceding from Spain and whether the Catalans would maintain their status as EU citizens. Under international law, as a successor state to the United Kingdom, an independent Scotland would continue in membership under the terms of Article 34 of the Vienna Convention on State Succession in Respect of Treaties, which provides that: “when a part or parts of a state separate to form one or more states, whether or not the predecessor state continues to exist … any treaty in force at the date of the succession of states in respect of the entire territory of the predecessor state continues in force in respect of each successor state so formed”.

Under international law, Scotland is part of the territory of the European Union and the people of Scotland are citizens of the EU. There is no provision for either of these circumstances to change upon independence.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh