Meeting of the Parliament 15 May 2025
I certainly agree that sanctions should be respected and that any evidence of companies trying to get round those should be brought to light. [Interruption.] I hear Mr Harvie speaking from a sedentary position. If he is asking me whether I would support the strengthening of sanctions, the answer is simple: I would.
I move on by borrowing from Germany’s former Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who said that we are living through a Zeitenwende—a turning point or crossroads. We have been here before. Relatively recently in our lifetimes, in 1989, change was under way after the fall of the Berlin wall. However, we have to be honest. That was a time of great hope and opportunities, but it was also a time of deep uncertainty about the future in Europe and internationally after the cold war. The experiences of the previous decades created fear about what the reaction to the communist dominoes falling in eastern Europe would be and what it would mean for the world.
Once the dust had settled, great challenges lay ahead in Europe, which were: supporting the development of democracy in a great number of different countries; rebuilding and transforming economies; and making European neighbours who had been cut off from the European integration process partners and, ultimately, ready to become EU members.
The European project, too, evolved greatly during that time. In 1992, the EU as we know it today was founded through the Maastricht treaty. In 2004, enlargement marked a watershed moment for post-1989 Europe with 10 new members joining the EU, and they have been followed by several more since then.
I turn to the contributions that have been made to our country by people from those European accession states and, indeed, all those from overseas who have chosen to settle here and make Scotland their home.