An independent Scotland would seek to rejoin the EU while using the pound, before moving to its own currency as quickly as possible and then potentially joining the euro further down the line.
The Scottish Government’s latest prospectus paper on independence said that after a vote to leave the UK, the nation would apply to join the EU as soon as possible, “continuing to use sterling at the point of application”.
It would then begin the process of establishing a new currency of its own – known as the “Scottish pound” – before potentially moving to the euro later if the Scottish Parliament decided this was the right thing to do for the economy.
The paper, the seventh in a series which began under Nicola Sturgeon, also argued that an independent Scotland would be “well placed” to join the EU and suggested that the accession process could take as little as two years.
It pointed out that the average time to join the EU is currently under five years from the opening of negotiations, but that Austria, Finland and Sweden had joined the bloc in under two years.
Speaking during a launch event for the paper at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson confirmed that Scotland’s currency would change after independence.
“Our plans, as have been outlined in the document, are for us to begin as a sovereign state while using the currency that we currently have, and we will be moving as quickly as we can towards having a currency of our own,” he said.
“That would put ourselves in the same position as a number of other European Union member states that are members without having adopted the euro.”
Asked to confirm if MSPs at Holyrood could decide to join euro later, he replied: “No current government can ever bind future governments, that’s a very basic constitutional principle in Scotland, in the UK and any other country. It’s a statement of fact.”
He also suggested that Scotland could rejoin the EU within two years of beginning negotiations, arguing it had an advantage over other similar countries having been part of the bloc for almost 50 years.
“There is no precedent for a part of the European Union which left rejoining, so there is not a direct read across with anywhere else,” he said.
“The average time for negotiation and accession to the European Union is under five years, and we do know that in the case of Austria, Sweden and Finland it took two years.
“I would observe, though, that what all of those countries had in common was that they had never been member states of the European Union.
“So does that present Scotland with an opportunity, does that present the European Union with an opportunity of starting from a different place than everybody else has? Absolutely.
“Why? Because we have been in, we have upheld the standards of European Union membership, and we would have the capacity to do so as a member state.”
