The longest-serving member of the European Parliament has said that it would be “easy” for an independent Scotland to negotiate entry into the union.
Known as the Father of the House, Elmar Broke has been an MEP since 1980 and is credited with writing the constitution of the EU by many.
READ MORE: Herald poll: Scotland should have independence referendum after Brexit
Speaking to former first minister Alex Salmond on his RT programme, the MEP, who went to Edinburgh University, said that Brexit will lead to Scotland thinking again about independence.
He said: “This is one of the nations closest to my heart ... this country is so wonderful, this is so pro-European ... and therefore I wish Scotland all the luck for the future and I know that the membership in the European Union is of the utmost importance for the future economic and social development of Scotland”.
Asked about the EU’s attitude to a future Scottish application for membership, Brok said: “If that is done in a referendum under the rules of the United Kingdom, and if you decide so then it would be then easy to have membership negotiations because Scotland fulfils all the needs for membership, because all the standards are already there, and therefore I am not pushing for dividing the United Kingdom, hopefully the United Kingdom could together be a member together of the European Union but if the United Kingdom goes out of the European Union I can imagine that the Scottish people will think a second time.”
Brok told Salmond’s latest show that he still “dreams” that Britain will stay in but sees this as unrealistic and the worst fear is a “hard Brexit by default”.
He expressed his “great regret” about Brexit saying that he “never believed that the United Kingdom would have no interest in its own interests.”
READ MORE: Theresa May insists SNP Government is 'betraying' Scotland with higher taxes
He also used the platform to describe Brexit negotiations as “stupid” and warned that a hard Brexit is now a very real danger.
“I think there is a very good chance of the hard Brexit," he said.
“For sure it’s a lose-lose situation for both of us and for economic reasons, as trading power but also for security policy we would like to have Britain in, but Britain is in this marketplace 13 times smaller than the market of the European Union so you know who will be the stronger part.”
A member of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Brok sits in the European Parliament’s European People’s Party bloc. He has had a number of positions in the CDU and its fellow groups and is seen as a committed European federalist.
This story originally appeared in our sister paper, The National
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel