FORMER MEPs and experts will be discussing Scotland’s place in Europe, EU enlargement and constitutional reform at a two-day free event in Edinburgh.
The European Movement in Scotland has joined forces with the Citizens’ Rights Group and New Europeans to stage a weekend of talks and debate on May 11 and 12 lead by top thinkers and academics at the capital’s Summerhall.
It comes just a month before the elections to the European Parliament in June - the first one Scots will not be able to vote in following Brexit - and just after Europe Day on May 9.
Former MEPs David Martin and Graham Watson will be among the speakers lined up as well as former SNP MP and international relations professor Stephen Gethins.
Martin, who was an MEP for Scotland between 1984 and 2019, will host a talk on constitutional reform in the EU and the consequences for European institutions, while ex-South West England MEP Watson will discuss future enlargement of the EU looking at the potential and the reality.
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Gethins, who was the SNP’s spokesperson on Europe while at Westminster, will be discussing European defence and security.
Other talks are set to come from Professor Jo Shaw who has been Salvesen Chair of European Institutions at Edinburgh University since January 2005. She will discuss the potential for new European connections, exploring possible new European organisations and methods of co-operation.
Professor Brigid Laffan, who is an emeritus professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for
Advanced Studies – part of the European University Institute – will host a talk looking at what polity and structure the EU may develop in the future.
David Clarke, chair of the European Movement in Scotland, says: “The weekend is a celebration of the strength of Europeanism in Scotland. It’s also an opportunity to ask where Scotland and the UK go in their relations with the EU.
“With our event partners, the Citizens Rights Group and New Europeans, we have assembled a powerful array of speakers and a programme that addresses matters of immediate concern and critically important issues the UK must address after the General Election.”
The weekend will also hear from speakers from the European Movement in Scotland, Citizens’ Rights Project, New Europeans, Glasgow University Migrant Youth Research, Scottish Advisory Forum on Europe, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the British Chambers of Commerce.
To register attendance click here.
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