Speaking exclusively to edie’s sister title Utility Week, Angus MacNeil – the SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, and ECCC chair – said Scotland will seek to remain in the EU and will continue to have a say on energy policy in the single market.
He added that he expects England and Wales to adopt a “Norway-type status”, whereby they are members of the European Economic Area (EEA), and will have to adopt European rules and legislation without having any influence on their development.
MacNeil said: “The decision maker in the EU will be Scotland and the followers will be England and Wales – that will be energy and everything else.
“We’ll be in , and they will be with Norway on the outside lobbying us.
“It’s crazy.”
The news comes as Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said that a second independence referendum is “highly likely” after the UK voted to leave the EU.
She said it was “democratically unacceptable” that Scotland faced the prospect of being “dragged out” of the EU against its will, as Scotland voted in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.
Sturgeon added that the Scottish government would begin preparing legislation to enable another independence vote.
Mathew Beech
This article first appeared on edie’s sister title, Utility Week