Europe Day 2023: What’s next for Scotland’s relationship with Europe?

ALLIANCE Director Irene Oldfather shares her reflections on Europe Day 2023 as we prepare for the first meeting of a new forum on Europe.

“Europe will not be made all at once or according to a single plan, it will be built on concrete achievements which first create solidarity.” The words of Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister on signing the Schuman Declaration in 1950 that established the European Coal and Steel Community – the very beginning of the EU and its institutions we know today.

In the aftermath of World War II, the ECSC Treaty represented the first step towards ensuring that Europe would not again see war by creating a collaboration to work together on economic and social solidarity.

From the start the EU improved living standards, championed international human rights and environmental protections, and provided its Member States countless other benefits across the nearly 75 years since the Treaty was signed. Schuman’s quote still has relevance today and indeed inspires hope that that solidarity is a key platform of being European. For although we may no longer be in the European Union, we can still aspire to be European.

Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, it’s clear that new relationships, collaborations and networks must be established to ensure that citizens, businesses, social enterprises and academics can continue to connect to and engage with Europe. For if the pandemic showed anything, it is that borders and boundaries are less important than global connections.

In my role as Vice Chair of the UK Domestic Advisory Group, I have been consulting with social partners across the UK. I am keen to establish a dialogue which helps us to identify the priorities of Scotland’s civil society organisations across business; the third sector; human rights and law; key export industries – and I believe that the appetite for creating these connections and contributing to the next phase in this relationship is there.

Together we can focus on how the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is affecting organisations and the people they represent, and try to identify solutions for the issues we are all facing. With the TCA due for general review in 2025, it is vital to ensure that the voices of Scottish civil society are included, heard, and understood in what comes next.

Later this month, over 30 representatives from across civil society are participating in the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Advisory Forum on Europe (SAFE), which will provide an opportunity to discuss national priorities for Scotland and advocate for its international interests. Through this Forum, Scotland could provide a blueprint for best practice engagement and collaboration across sectors within civil society, to adapt to the challenges created by leaving the EU as well as find new areas for improved collaboration and alignment with the European Union. I’m proud to be leading on this work, and will be hosting this first meeting of SAFE in Edinburgh in partnership between key stakeholders in Scotland.

This Europe Day on 9 May, we will be reflecting on the advances that international partnership and collaboration can bring: better research and information sharing; labour protections; energy cooperation; international mobility; and the protection of our natural environment, to name a few. In the aftermath of Brexit, it’s important that we do what we can to ensure these advances are not rolled back, and we hope that the voice of Scotland in this effort will be made louder through the creation of SAFE.

It feels a little bit like in a post Brexit, post-pandemic world, with UK politics in a state of flux we find ourselves in a train station waiting room. With eight accession countries in the mix destination Europe is forging ahead, collaborating on the environment, on social and economic cohesion, and on citizens rights and protections. We are no longer part of the European Union, but whatever your constitutional perspective, there can be no Brexit from citizen solidarity and cooperation. It is time to at least get back on a parallel train that forges networks and collaborations, looks for opportunities, and continues to contribute to that vision of a Europe based on peace, solidarity and cooperation.

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