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Alistair Darling: Scotland faces nine-year wait to join EU
telegraph Unionist Spin..Gotta love it.
Alistair Darling: Scotland faces nine-year wait to join EU
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...o-join-EU.html
6:00AM GMT 08 Feb 2013
An independent Scotland would face a nine-year wait to join the European Union rather than the seamless transition in Alex Salmond’s “totally inaccurate” timetable, Alistair Darling has suggested.
The former Chancellor published research showing the 15 countries that have joined the EU since 1995 had to wait on average nearly a decade after submitting their initial applications.
Earlier this week, Mr Salmond published a list of 30 countries that have become independent since 1960 and claimed the average time for them to separate following referendums was only 15 months.
The First Minister said this showed that Scotland could separate by March 2016, around 16 months after the independence referendum, and negotiate entry to the EU by the same deadline.
But Mr Darling said the SNP leader’s list contained only two nations that are EU members and even they had to wait an average of more than eight years after submitting their applications.
He said that 11 of the 30 countries listed actually voted against separation only to become independent at a later date, thereby rendering the First Minister’s 15-month claim inaccurate.
The intervention by Mr Darling, who is leading the pro-UK Better Together referendum campaign, came after constitutional experts denounced the SNP timetable as “risible”.
Scottish ministers have cited the views of Lucinda Creighton, the Irish European Affairs Minister, as evidence EU membership could be negotiated between a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum and separation in the spring of 2016.
However, this was undermined this week by José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, who strongly indicated that talks could only begin after Scotland actually becomes an independent state.
Mr Darling said last night: “Constitutional experts have said the nationalist timetable is a work fiction. Even the examples the nationalists quote in their own document show we would face a lengthy application process to the EU.
“Rather than come clean on the process they continue to spin the facts and to conceal the truth. We cannot have an open debate on the future of Scotland while the nationalist’s instinct is to hide from the big questions.”
The Better Together research showed the length of time for new countries to join the EU has varied from three years for Finland to 14 years for Cyprus.
Among the other nations that faced a lengthy accession process were Romania (12-and-a-half years), Bulgaria (12 years) and Poland and Hungary, who each had to wait a decade.
Two of the new member states were among the countries listed by Mr Salmond as evidence that Scotland could become independent and join the EU only 16 months after the referendum.
However, Better Together said Slovenia only became an EU member eight years after applying in June 1996, while Estonia had to wait nine years after its initial application in November 1995.
A third country on Mr Salmond’s list, Croatia, applied in February 2003 and is scheduled to gain membership this July, more than a decade later.
SNP ministers have claimed Scotland’s membership would be fast-tracked because it is part of an existing member state, but have admitted latterly they would be forced to negotiate their own euro opt-out and version of the UK’s rebate.
Ms Creighton has warned negotiations for membership are always “painstaking” and the terms “would undoubtedly be somewhat different to the existing terms.”
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