Scotland's place in Europe: assessment of the revised EU withdrawal agreement and political declaration

4. Conclusions and Next Steps

55. It continues to be the case that under the revised deal negotiated by the UK Government Scotland would be taken out of the European Union, the most successful and developed international partnership in the world, in direct contradiction to Scotland's democratic will. The UK Government have failed to force the House of Commons into a choice, which we consider to be false, between this deal or a no deal exit on the 31 October 2019. Our assessment of the revised deal, underlines the negative impact for Scotland of EU exit for Scotland. It remains our responsibility as a Government to be clear that this is not good enough for Scotland. Neither a bad deal nor no deal are acceptable and the Scottish Government continues to believe that the choice should be put to the people in a public vote with the option to remain.

56. The entire Brexit process has demonstrated the best outcome for Scotland is to be an independent full member of the European Union rather than be subject to decisions made by the UK Government which are clearly not in Scotland's interests, or in line with the views of the majority of people in Scotland. The Scottish Government is therefore committed to holding a new independence referendum, so that the people of Scotland have the opportunity to determine their own future.