Sub-national Mobilization and the Scottish Government’s Action Plan on European Engagement

Abstract

In April 2008 the Scottish Government, headed by a minority nationalist administration, published an Action Plan on European Engagement which sets out the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) key strategies and priorities for achieving effective sub-national inputs to European Union (EU) policy. Although responsibility for EU affairs is reserved to Westminster under the UK devolution settlement, longstanding mechanisms for territorial involvement have enabled a degree of Scottish input to EU policy. This article considers how the SNP administration might wish to see reform of these mechanisms and the scope for change under existing devolution arrangements.