Frank Zipper wrote:Dumb Ideologies wrote:Fair. I assumed they'd necessarily join the Euro immediately. An intermediate currency between leaving the UK and joining the Euro, perhaps? Two independent countries - presumably with distinct monetary and fiscal policies - would have to have separate currencies, wouldn't they?
The US Dollar is the currency in British Virgin Islands, but a small island is probably not that comparable to the Scottish situation.
OTOH, the usual arguments* put against Scottish independence are summarised as Scotland being "too poor, too wee and too stupid", so obviously 2/5ths of the Island of Great Britain is comparable with "a small island".
But back to Europe, an independent Scotland newly joining (i.e. not inheriting the place of the former UKoGB&NI) would almost certainly require to commit to "eventually" joining the Euro, but there is a particular route to be followed to be a Eurozone member, some of the steps of which are voluntary. That is where Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia are just now - "committed" but not necessarily having a specific timetable for joining.
So the new Scotland would need some sort of currency. It can set up its own, or it can use another currency. That could be Pound Sterling, but that would introduce its own complications with not having any representation at the Bank of England, and it being a currency of a country outside the EU. On that basis it would be as simple to use the US Dollar, which post Brexit may be stronger than Pound Sterling and of course is the currency currently used to price oil**.
Or Scotland could
use the Euro without being in the Eurozone on the same basis as Pound Sterling or US Dollar. That's what Kosovo and Montenegro are doing unilaterally - they have no agreements with the EU to do so.
Incidentally Andorra, Monaco, San Marino & The Vatican all use the Euro without being in the Eurozone, but they have a specific agreement to do so and to issue their own Euro coinage. So it's possible (if extremely unlikely) that a similar agreement could be made with Scotland for a transitional period until it joined the Eurozone.
*
Not that there are not a number of perfectly valid arguments against Scottish independence, just they are rarely deployed**
Don't mention the oil. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.