“The EU must lay out a road map for self-determination in Europe” claims Maggie Lennon at #Conflict Resolution event

As we see more stateless nations within Europe, more autonomous regions, more devolved administrations push for self-determination. It is time to stop thinking that these are in the minority.

It is time to tell central states that they cannot cling to the old forms of power as they have done before.

This is now about a fight for democracy in Europe.It is a fight for the right for self-determination.

Undoubtedly, the European Union has a role to play in this, but it has to be consistent in that role.

And what it must do, as an imperative, is to lay out a road map for these areas and regions and countries and stateless nations in Europe to know what the future will be within Europe in the future.

In Scotland we may have left the European Union officially, but 65% of the people feels still European. Self-determination in Scotland is about democracy.

If the government in Westminster is prepared to deny our right to have at least a vote on self-determination, we must ask ourselves what else are they prepared to remove from us? The people of Galicia must ask the same,  Catalonia must ask the same, the Basque country and the people in Wales and the people in the North of Ireland and all the other parts of Europe fighting for self-determination must ask the same.

There is a dreadful democratic deficit occurring in Europe and it is time to stop.

We, those of us who push for self-determination, will be proven to be on the right side of history.  I look forward to the fights and the battles to come. Hopefully within a year or so Scotland will have another chance to take a vote and a step forward.

And one of the things I’m desperately hopeful for is that all of the grassroots movements across Europe who are fighting in their own way can come together in a properly formed network to learn from each other, to encourage each other, and to take that Democratic message forward to its people.

That is the way forward.

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