The European Movement in Scotland (EMiS), the country’s leading pro-EU body, is today urging Scots to defy Brexit and fight to rejoin the European Union.
EMiS is launching its own campaign for Scotland to rejoin the European Union as swiftly as possible – whatever its constitutional status.
Tier 4 restrictions have forced the cancellation of planned street protests against Brexit up and down the country, including at the Scottish Parliament and UK Government hub in the capital.
Instead, EMiS members and supporters will be protesting wherever and however possible against a bad deal on future EU-UK relations that poses a serious threat to Scotland’s future and that of its younger generations.
Mark Lazarowicz, EMiS convenor, says: ” With all the crises the world faces, the argument for the European Union is stronger than ever – and opinion polls show that support for EU membership is higher than it was at the time of the 2016 referendum, both in Scotland and across the whole of the UK.
“Whether Scotland becomes part of the EU again as an independent nation state, or through the UK as a whole, we know it will not happen overnight. But being a realist doesn’t mean we stop campaigning for our country to be part of that wider European project again.”
Today marks the end of UK membership of the EU Single Market and Customs Union. From 1 January 2021, more than 5m Scots will lose the right to live, travel and work freely in 31 other European countries.
As we prepare for this sad day, we in the European Movement in Scotland are united in this pledge:
“We declare that Scotland is a European country, embracing our common values of peace, democracy, human rights, equality, sustainability and solidarity.
The clear wish of the great majority of the Scottish people is that Scotland should be within the European Union.
We commit to working to bring this about, whatever Scotland’s constitutional status”.
The pledge can be signed at: http://chng.it/DpBZpy8J
We are calling on as many as possible to share pictures of themselves displaying the EU stars – a symbol of European unity – in some form, accompanied by the hashtag #WeWillBeBack.
We urge all those who feel the same to join us at the European Movement in Scotland (euromovescotland.org.uk @euromovescot), so that our fellow Europeans can hear us loud and clear!