The Scottish Centre on European Relations, the first think tank of its kind in Scotland, produced during its all too brief lifetime a stunning series of policy papers, analyses and comment pieces/blogs that set the agenda for a core element of political debate now and in the years ahead: Scotland’s relations with the European Union.
Unfortunately, largely due to lack of sustained funding, SCER, under its first-class director Kirsty Hughes, closed its door in July 2021 after more than four years of ground-breaking research and high-quality events. The European Movement in Scotland, a non-partisan body like SCER, shares its vision: “The EU will continue to be vital to much of Scotland’s economy, society and culture in the coming decades.”
EMiS has gladly – and proudly – agreed to archive around 20 policy papers and reports published by SCER since 2017 and some of its incisive comment pieces. As an organisation that campaigns for Scotland to (re)join the EU, either in its own right or as part of the UK, we believe this archive is a vital resource in the discussion about, critically, how a small nation of 5.4m people can regain its rightful place in Europe and what that place should be.
POLICY PAPER | Across the EU institutions and member states, Brexit is falling down the agenda, as other priorities come ever more to the fore. The EU27 are currently embroiled in political bargaining over who will get the top EU jobs in the next five year cycle… Read More »
REPORT | Strategy report setting out the big future challenges for the EU – and Scotland’s contribution to that European future.… Read More »
POLICY PAPER | The tangled, chaotic and damaging process of Brexit will drag on for many years to come, unless the UK changes its mind and stays in the EU. The many and deep downsides of Brexit have led some to argue that Scottish independence would lead… Read More »
POLICY PAPER | As EU-UK Brexit talks resumed in mid-July, the UK government’s Chequers’ statement and white paper[1] had, in theory, provided some basis for talks on the future relationship while causing political controversy at home, not least within the… Read More »
POLICY PAPER | The two ‘Remain’ areas of the UK – Northern Ireland and Scotland – are mostly analysed separately in Brexit debates. Northern Ireland faces a unique complex of problems given the challenge of managing the Irish border as an external… Read More »
REPORT | The Brexit process is moving forward. March saw the publication of the draft withdrawal agreement with substantial areas of agreement but also many tricky areas yet to solve, not least the Irish border and governance of the whole agreement. … Read More »
POLICY PAPER | If Brexit stays on track, and keeps to timetable, then by next autumn an exit deal will have been done. This will include an outline of the future UK-EU27 relationship – though detailed negotiation on that will be for the years after Brexit… Read More »
POLICY PAPER | The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union requires not only a readjustment of the UK’s external relations with the EU and the wider world, but also changes to domestic law. The government announced the introduction of a Repeal Bill. The Repeal Bill will be a technically complex piece of legislation, and it raises questions about the appropriate balance of powers between the legislature and the executive, and also about devolution.… Read More »
