The Scottish Case

The results of Scotlands historic referendum on separating from the United Kingdom confirmed the opinion polls that were in favor of unionists.

România Internațional, 03.10.2014, 13:09

Scots decided to keep the Kingdom intact, which prompted head of the European Council Herman van Rompuy to say that the UK is and always will be an important member of the EU. Jose Manuel Barosso, president of the European Commission, saluted the decision made by the Scottish people to preserve the union, while Martin Schulz, chairman of the European Parliament, said his institution was willing to engage in constructive dialog with the Scottish government in important areas such as creating jobs, economic growth, policies, energy and climate change.

These are all sensitive topics, and unionists conducted their campaign around issues such as the economic consequences of separation, warning about potential loss of jobs and influence in the world. On the other hand, the Scottish separatists argue that an English elite in London, which largely ignores Scotland’s interests, leads the UK. They also claimed that too little of the North Sea oil revenues stay in the area. One other claim was that the Scots have no saying when it comes to the presence of nuclear weapons in the country. Foreign policy analyst Cristian Mititelu attempted to take apart some of these arguments:

Cristian Mititelu: “There is no reason for the Scottish population to be more discontent today economically, because the dismantling of industry occurred mostly under the Thatcher government, almost 20 years ago, and the Scottish economy restructured then. Currently it is on an upward trend, just like the UK economy. The Scottish GDP per capita is higher than the one in England. Therefore the economic reasons are a matter of perception. Some of the Scots feel their living standard is not as high as it should be. But this is not necessarily true.”

What would Scotland’s separation have meant? What would the EU and NATO have done with an entity turned into an independent state that claimed membership? European leaders warned ahead of the referendum that, had Scotland become independent, it should go through all the stages of joining the EU. The Scottish case is not unique in Europe. An expert on European topics, Thomas Friedrich, from the International Press Association, said in an interview with Radio Romania that the Scottish case is not unique in Europe in general, and the EU in particular. We have the Catalans who want autonomy, we have a similar movement in the north of Italy, and even in Belgium we are witness to trends that try to divide this small country. In a larger perspective, we can extrapolate this to Ukraine. Any country on the European continent – and I am talking about the continent, not just the European Union – any country that divides will become weaker and more exposed to danger than before secession. Thomas Friedrich suggested a federal model, such as Germany’s, which could be a solution for Ukraine, granting more administrative powers and more autonomy to certain regions, while keeping the nation united.

If Scots had opted for independence, the UK, a 300-year-old union including England, Wales and Northern Ireland would have changed dramatically, losing 5 million of its 60 million strong population. In the parliament in Budapest, Representative Zsolt Nemeth from the ruling FIDESZ party said that the referendum proved that autonomy was not a destabilizing factor, and that the referendum showed that Brits did not win against Scots, but that the idea of autonomy did. Journalist Istvan Pataki, foreign policy correspondent for the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet, believes that there is no parallel between the Scottish referendum and the aspirations for autonomy among Hungarians in Romania:

Istvan Pataki: “The biggest difference between the situation in Scotland and that in the predominantly Hungarian area in Romania, the so-called Szekely Land, is that in Romania we are talking about aspirations towards autonomy, while Scotland has had a very strong autonomy for many years, and now they were deciding on independence. Why don’t I see a parallel there? In Europe there is autonomy in the case of many countries, and each state decides how it grants autonomy to minorities who live there or claim it.”

In Bucharest, Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean saluted the outcome of the referendum, and said that a UK that contains Scotland is a strategic partner for Romania in both the EU and NATO.