FoE Scotland welcomes ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe’ proposals

Commenting on the Scottish Government’s paper “Scotland’s Place in Europe,” Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“We welcome these proposals from the Scottish Government, which clearly put protecting our environment and co-operation on reducing climate change emissions at the heart of Scotland’s position on Europe.

“If we really are embarking on the risky adventure of leaving the EU then this is a good set of proposals which safeguard many of the benefits of our current European membership including environmental protections, free movement of people and consumer rules that protect us from harmful chemicals in food and other products.

“The vote to leave the EU is a huge challenge to decades of progress on improving the environment and working together to tackle climate change. The Scottish Government has already made welcome commitments to maintain current environmental protections and to continue to work together on climate change, and these are strongly re-inforced in these proposals and in today's statements from the First Minister.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Scottish Government’s paper is here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/12/9234

Richard Dixon’s blog on the referendum result is here: https://foe.scot/index.php/2016/06/eu-departure/

FoE Scotland briefing on the EU referendum: http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/node/2166

Friends of the Earth Scotland is:

* Scotland's leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 75 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups.
www.foe-scotland.org.uk