Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK? by Will Hayward

Author:Will Hayward [Hayward, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785907678
Publisher: Biteback
Published: 2022-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

HOW WOULD WALES JOIN?

From a purely administrative point of view, there is an established path for countries joining the European Union. The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join and require factors such as having institutions to preserve democratic governance and human rights, a functioning market economy and accepting the obligations and intent of the EU.

The negotiation is based on thirty-five different areas, known as ‘chapters of the acquis’. Wales would be required to adapt its administrative and institutional infrastructures and bring its national legislation into line with EU laws in these areas. These cover an enormous range of issues, like the gathering of statistics, fisheries and intellectual property law, as well as the free movement of goods, people and services. This affects how long it takes for a country to join. If its systems are very different to the EU’s, then it can take a very long time to meet all these criteria. However, if there is already a lot of overlap, the process can be pretty quick. Iceland and Norway both had really fast negotiations (which was still three years in the case of Iceland), though neither ended up joining. The same was true for Austria and Denmark, who did become members. At present, having only left the EU recently, Wales would likely find it quite easy to reach all the criteria. But if we are talking about Wales joining in fifteen years’ time, it is likely its systems will have drifted further apart, meaning the process will take longer.

Would the EU as a whole welcome the application of an independent Wales? Most likely yes. Wales would be a country with longstanding experience of democracy and a free market economy. It has been an EU member before, so there is no fundamental reason why the institution would not want Wales to join. The only issue that could slow the negotiations is that the EU’s attention is focused on the Balkans. Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro are all candidate states, and there are negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is also applying to join but not yet recognised as a candidate.

Then we come to the challenge presented by Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 but is not recognised by five EU states or Serbia. The Kosovo situation is representative of the potential stumbling block an independent Wales could face. Though the EU as an organisation would likely not have a problem with Wales joining per se, there is still the matter of the individual member states, all of whom have a veto over new members. Not only that, they can also veto over the pace of negotiations and the terms on which a new state joins. This really matters, because there are countries within the EU that could have real concerns about setting a precedent for a newly independent nation joining. The two big flashpoints are around Spain and Cyprus. Spain has several independence movements within its borders, but the two most prominent are in Catalonia and the Basque regions.

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