MacCormick welcomes new member states to EU
SNP MEPs Neil MacCormick MEP and Ian Hudghton MEP have welcomed the accession of ten new member states to the European Union at a ceremony in the European Parliament. The European Free Alliance Group made their own contribution to the subsequent debate on enlargement by raising the flags of the stateless nations represented in the European Free Alliance. Speaking from Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is meeting for the last time before the elections, Prof. MacCormick said:
“It was a moving spectacle to admire all the flags of the new member states being raised alongside the existing fifteen at the welcome ceremony. But there were some missing. The Saltire was not among them, and nor were those of the other stateless nations represented in the European Free Alliance.”
Mr Hudghton added:
“Many of the new member states are similar in size to Scotland, and some are much smaller. Many of them have emerged from a larger, incorporating union. Like them, Scotland would prosper as an independent member state of the EU. It’s a shame that we will have to wait some time before the St Andrew’s Cross flies alongside the flags of the other 25 member states.
“So we decided to fly it ourselves in the Chamber to mark our desire to accede to the European Union in our own right.”
■