EU optimism

One of the abiding rules of presenting an argument has always been the necessity to keep it, however tenuously, in touch with reality. This George Rennie fails to do when he says it would take 20 years for Scotland to join the EU (Letters, 5 May).

Mr Rennie's assertion posits a situation whereby the accession process of an applicant country, with the possible exception of Turkey with its myriad human rights issues, would be the longest in the history of the EU. It takes no account of the fact that, as a constituent part of the UK, Scotland has complied with the requirements of the EU “acquis” for 40 years. The main flaws which undermine Mr Rennie's argument are that he sets arbitrary timescales based on personal conjecture with no empirical evidence to substantiate them and sees a world where all the stages of the process have to be carried out in a tortuous sequential process.

The most fragile part of Mr Rennie's argument and the longest part of his self-selected timescale of ten years, comes when he says that membership cannot happen until Scotland has a functioning market economy and its own currency.

In the first place, Scotland has a market economy and second, Mr Rennie appears unaware that the UK kept the pound during the entire time of its membership. The history of the EU shows that some joining members retained their own currency and others adopted the euro.

For example, following the separation of Czechoslovakia, a previous Eastern European state, the Czech Republic retained the koruna while Slovakia transitioned to the euro. Both joined the EU. There's no logical reason things should be any different or more timeconsuming for Scotland.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh