Scottish Government plans to “jump the queue into Europe” are not legal, the First Minister has been told.
However, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson was slapped down by presiding officer Tricia Marwick at First Minister’s Questions after she said Alex Salmond had previously “misled the Scottish public on EU legal advice”.
Ms Davidson pointed to a letter from former legal counsel of the European Council, Jean-Claude Piris, which claimed the SNP’s preferred route for an independent Scotland to join the European Union was “not legally correct”.
The Scottish Government’s White Paper argues it would be “appropriate” for an independent Scotland to use Article 48 of the Treaty of the European Union to gain membership, adding that countries would only use Article 49 to achieve this status if they were outside the EU.
Mr Salmond said the Government’s position on EU membership was supported by a new adviser to the Better Together campaign.
Professor Jim Gallagher has recently joined the pro-UK campaign group, which includes the Tories, as an adviser on policy and strategy issues.
Mr Salmond said in a blog last year Prof Gallagher had stated: “It seems pretty likely Scotland would be an EU member state probably, after an accelerated set of accession negotiations.”
Mr Salmond said: “If we get to the position that even they I know that it is difficult for Jim Gallagher to be caught telling the truth on the matter because of his current position say that, people will adopt the reasonable position that it is a profound and important contribution to the political debate.”
The First Minister was not censured for intimating those in favour of the Union regularly lie.