Environmental Protection Scotland Room 3, Caledonian Suite, 70 West Regent Street, Glasgow, G2 2QZ Tel: 0141 333 6655 Fax: 0141 333 1116 Email: [email protected] www.ep-scotland.org.uk Environmental Protection Scotland is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation SCIO Scottish Charity No. SC 043410 ”I FEEL COMPLETELY HEARTBROKEN ABOUT THIS DECISION” Former Green Party MEP Molly Scott Cato on Brexit Special report by Policy & Communications Officer John Bynorth on EPS’s visit to Brussels last month ON January 28th – three days before she packed her bags and left the European Parliament for good –UK MEP Molly Scott Cato warned of the damage that she felt Brexit would cause the UK’s interests. The Green Party politician offered her candid opinions on the country’s prospects outside of the 27 member bloc. Environmental Protection Scotland had been invited to Brussels to discuss Brexit with Ms Scott Cato at the EU Parliament. We also received a briefing about the work of the parliament by EU Parliament spokesperson Olaf Schneider (pictured on page 5) and tour of the building, including the parliamentary chamber the day before MEPs rubber-stamped Britain’s exit with a special debate and vote. Ms Scott Cato put on record how she felt about leaving the EU, six years after her election to the parliament. She said: “I feel completely heartbroken by this decision. Loads of people are saying ‘oh well, never mind’ about Brexit. I don’t agree. It’s a bloody disastrous decision!” The South West of England MEP conceded that she ‘not ready to leave’ Brussels along with the 72 UK politicians who made up the British contingent, including three from Scotland, on January 31st. Britain’s 47-year unbroken EEC/EU membership ended on that date after four years of brinkmanship, two general elections. It cost the political careers of two UK prime ministers, a Labour leader and saw a rise in support for the SNP and independence in Scotland, which had voted to Remain in the 2016 referendum. Ms Scott Cato said that she had ‘fought down to the wire’ to prevent the UK leaving. However, she stated that her current view was it was “not the time to say that we have to rejoin the EU.” She added: “Everyone gave everything they had got to stop this thing happening. But it has happened and our country is going to have to go through all the damage that Brexit will bring. “The most important job for us is to identify where that damage has come from and what has caused it.” She said that UK Government policy with regard to a number of policy areas would be ‘all over the place’ post-Brexit not least with regard to visas once the 12-month transition period ended. She asked why a close relative would no longer be able to “travel to Portugal because she’s had a kidney failure, and can no longer get the (EU medical) insurance? It’s because of Brexit. Ms Scott Cato added that although she wanted remind people of such Brexit-related concerns, she no longer had any influence at EU level. She continued: “The betrayal narrative will now be that it was our (the UK’s) fault because we didn’t get on board with the (EU) project earlier, and it’s the EU’s fault. “This is exactly what happened with fascism. A massive tension was created which created a binding division and then blame was laid (against people on one side of the argument). As things gets worse that side has to take more blame.” She added that the job of pro-European campaigners was not to fight to re-enter the EU for the time being, but to argue “that these things are the consequence of Brexit.” Ms Scott Cato, pictured right, said that she feared Britain would be cut adrift from the continent. She added: “The other thing is that there could be a very rapid process in which a diplomatic gap opens up between the EU and other European countries. “It’s very clear the UK Government’s plan is to make us the 51st state of the US and the lapdog” of President Trump. She added: “That will be disastrous for our relationship with the European Union, and disastrous for us as citizens of Europe. She claimed that the US, China and Europe were the world’s three main power brokers which left Britain in a difficult position. Ms Scott Cato added: “The US suffers perhaps from the same problems as us. Then you have China where protestors can be crushed and have no human rights and the environmental standards are appalling. “Then we have Europe. I am not saying it is paradise, but at least most MEPs do work to improve things for citizens. You have genuine democracy. There’s a strong ‘green’ vote. We are having a new ‘green deal’ and there’s the action on climate change. We have received fantastic solidarity from the Germans. I know we all have our stereotypes about the Germans, but when you work in the European institutions you really admire their commitment to this project.” She said British policy making could not be compared to Germany’s. Ms Scott Cato added that that there were a range of areas where Britain would struggle to implement policies post-Brexit. She said one example of this was the EU’s ability to stand up to major corporations. It plans to take on Apple and standardise mobile and other electronic device plug in chargers as an example of a policy the UK would struggle to implement on its own. This would have positive implications for plastics recycling as many chargers are thrown out after buy new electronic devices. Ms Scott Cato, added: “Britain is not going to just be able to set standards. Apple are obviously fighting the EU’s plans for a uniform standard charger.” She added that each time Apple changed the design of their chargers that it meant that people had “to buy a specific product and stick with the company.” “It’s also wasteful because you have to have all these different (types of) chargers. But can you imagine a situation where Britain says it is going to create the ‘British Standard Charger’ and Apple will begin making gadgets that comply with this? It is not going to happen and is a clear example of why the UK does not have power over the economy in the way the EU does.” Ms Scott Cato said that EU citizens in Britain were “feeling extraordinarily vulnerable, fearful and insecure” and praised a campaign in Plymouth were yellow roses were given to EU nationals as a symbol of solidarity. She said that there were twinning exchanges organised by local authorities between UK and EU towns and cities would play an important role in retaining the links with the continent. Environmental Protection Scotland working for a cleaner, quieter, healthier and sustainable Scotland 2 Ms Scott Cato, a former professor of strategy and sustainability at the University of Roehampton, added: “Every UK town or city should have a ‘twin’ in every EU member state. That’s the basis on which our young people should continue to visit this state and continent.” She added that it was hugely important for younger generations, in particular, to continue to visit the EU and vice versa through programmes such as the EU-funded Erasmus (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) scheme which provides an opportunity for EU students to study in another member state as part of their courses. Doubt has been cast over its long-term viability due to Brexit, although many educational institutions currently still operate the scheme. Ms Scott-Cato said that she did not know whether students would be able to participate in Erasmus schemes next year. She added: “The EU organised a lot of student exchanges, with Erasmus, probably the best known. These schemes made sure that students from UK had been to all these other countries, and understood what it was like to live in places as far apart as Bulgaria, Portugal and Finland. “They will disappear, but we need to find alternate ways of keeping Erasmus and other similar initiatives going.” “We are looking at programmes for countries like Serbia or Macedonia, where a small number of young people can come and visit. We are looking to see if we can be included in schemes like those countries, but the answer from the EU will probably be that we can’t because we are leaving – and they are joining. We are probably less EU now within the European Union than Serbia or Macedonia. “There are privately financed twinning and visits and we have to pour our energy into making twinning a success. We have to make it possible for young people to visit the continent. She pointed out that Conservative Government whipped its MPs to vote against an amendment in the EU Withdrawal Bill that would have compelled the UK to remain part of the Erasmus scheme. Student exchange programmes would be far down the ‘huge list of things’ such as finance that the UK Government had to deal with after Brexit, added Ms Scott-Cato. She said that there was a danger that UK students would be left to rely on the internet to find out about EU countries. “We have to make sure that they are finding out about the continent in a real way, not just through the internet.” She questioned how EU environmental regulations and directives would be maintained and questioned whether the Office for Environmental Protection, which formed part of the UK Environment Bill, would be genuinely independent of the UK Government.