THE SNP has insisted an independent Scotland will be able to join the EU without joining the euro.
Deidre Brock told Tory minister Penny Mordaunt that there just needed to be a commitment “to joining the euro at some point in the future.”
However, Ms Brock’s argument has already been contested by officials in the EU.
Earlier this week, one expert told the Herald on Sunday that it would likely be "impossible" for a new member to join up and opt out of the single currency.
The clash in the Commons follows reaction from Brussels after Nicola Sturgeon last week committed to rejoining the EU, but said the euro was not “the right option for Scotland”.
Four separate EU sources then told the Times that any Scottish application for membership would be unlikely to succeed without a pledge to sign up to the euro.
That report was then raised by Ms Mordaunt during last Thursday’s Business Questions.
Ms Brock today told the leader of the House of Commons that the paper’s sources had “apparently told eager journalists something we’ve actually known for a very long time.”
She added: “That countries applying to join, as Scotland can once it regains its independence, must commit to joining the euro at some point in the future.
“She might not know this but there are in fact seven countries who’ve been in the EU for between nine and 27 years and still use their own choice of currency: Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Romania – so it is not quite the ‘gotcha’ unionists thought it was.”
“And given the slide in value of the pound from $1.64 in 2014 to just $1.13 today, and after the mad ride of the last few weeks, I’m not sure this government thinks all that much of the pound anyway.
“For further useful insights for both her and the Labour frontbench, to get some grown up, stepped-up facts on the issues, can I suggest she look out the series of papers the Scottish Government is producing on all things Scottish independence. A debate on them, I think, would be very useful in this house.”
A spokeswoman for economic affairs at the European Commission in Brussels told the Herald on Sunday: “All EU member states, except Denmark which has an opt-out clause, are legally committed to join the euro area once they fulfil the necessary conditions.
“It is up to individual countries to calibrate their path towards the euro and no timetable is prescribed.”
Dr Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre in Brussels, told the Herald on Sunday: “A country can negotiate a permanent or potentially temporary derogation from this. Denmark has a permanent opt-out enshrined in the treaties so it will never have to introduce the euro.
“The UK had a similar opt-out when it was still a member. However, both of these were negotiated when these countries were part of the EU, in essence to ensure that economic and monetary union could be introduced even though some countries didn’t have the intention to join.
“It would be much harder, if not impossible, for a new member to negotiate such a permanent opt-out. However, it might be possible to negotiate essentially a grace period.”
Responding to Ms Brock in the Commons, Ms Mordaunt said: “Can I thank her for doing the homework that I set her last week? I take it all back, she has had a really productive week figuring out how to square the establishment of the Scottish pound with joining the euro.
“We very much appreciate that, but I would just again say to the SNP, these are not the issues that are facing the Scottish people on their list of priorities.
“They are worried about health, they are worried about poor education standards, they are worried about their bins being collected.”
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