EXPATRIATE Scots who are living or working in European countries are being urged to consider becoming ambassadors for Scotland.
The Europe for Scotland movement is aiming to ease an independent Scotland’s route back into the European Union, and is on the hunt for Scots to take on the roles to publicise the fact that we did not vote for Brexit and, if independent, would seek to rejoin the bloc.
“We expect the Scottish Government to formally request another referendum soon, possibly as soon as this autumn,” said the group in a newsletter.
“Almost certainly Boris Johnson’s government will try to resist this request and it might even resort to challenging it in court. Our campaign does not plan to watch idly while this stalemate takes place.
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“Provided we can raise the funds to do so, we want to start lobbying the European Parliament to take a stance, as well as develop strategies to grow support for Scotland among citizens of individual EU member states.”
The ambassadors would advise Europe for Scotland on how to shape their overall strategy in the countries in which they are based.
They would represent the movement and help to grow the campaign in their country.
It is expected that ambassadors will be invited to events planned in Scotland, Brussels and potentially other European destinations next year.
Andrea Pisauro, who is coordinating the campaign, told The National the qualities they were seeking in would-be ambassadors.
He said: “Fundamentally we are looking for people determined to help Scots seeing democracy respected, who want to do something constructive for European solidarity and see the potential positive impact that Scotland’s return might have on the EU.
“We’re looking for people who are active, engaged with their country in the political scene, they understand what’s going on in their country and what people are thinking.
“They also have to be internationalist and pro-European, and see the democratic case for Scotland returning to the EU if people so wish, and also for the benefit that this could bring you in terms of becoming more outward looking and democratic.
“But mostly we would like to start by identifying a strategy to have an impact on the public opinion of the country. Let’s make people more aware of [Scotland’s] tradition and culture because a lot of people are thinking only about Covid and economic problems, and they don’t really know much about the international situation.
“We want to try to find a way to get people’s attention, in an engaging way.”
Pisauro said one early challenge would be trying to find a niche to discuss the issue in a public forum, which was likely to differ from country to country.
He said broadly speaking, people were generally aware that Scotland did not vote for Brexit.
However, he added: “That doesn’t mean that it’s fresh in their minds, or that they’re thinking about it now. In a way Brexit made the UK situation a little remote from people’s lives.
“The understanding was OK – the UK went their own way, so it’s really none of our business now.
“But then people think about the challenges they face to shift their attention away from the issue, because there are so many things happening here that are part of people’s lives, such as relatives dying and unemployment are among the many major challenges.
“People here are younger and they are aware that Scotland is different from England in their approach to Europe.”
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