While the General Delegation of Ipse accompanied by Jean Lapeyre is meeting our Scottish partners in Edinburgh to organize the 44^th Ipse Meeting, Scotland is experiencing determining times.

With the referendum on the Brexit in which Scotland voted in favor of remaining in the European Union, it is now necessary to find a compromise with the British government.

Thérésa May, British Prime Minister and Nicola Sturgeon Scottish Prime Minister

In Scotland, which has her own government and regional parliament, 62% of the respondents voted to remain in the European Union during the referendum of the 23 June 2016 and intends to keep close links with the European Union. So far Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, had not taken any step forward to find an agreement satisfying the desire of the Scottish people to remain in the European Union. Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon decided to give her until March to take action.

Otherwise, she plans to organize a new referendum on Scotland’s membership in the UK.

Such a referendum had already taken place in 2014 and 55.3% of the population rejected the independence. But since then, the situation has changed, and the Scots may decide to leave the United Kingdom for the purpose of staying in the European Union. The British government does not want to hear anything about it and British Defense Minister Michael Fallon has even said: “We have been clear; there is no need to hold a second referendum.”

So, Scotland feared to be neglected, and that the will of its fellow-citizens would not be taken into account in the negotiations of the Brexit. This is also the case for Ireland. With the Brexit, the 4.6 million southern Irish will remain European, while the 1.8 million northern Irish, who are British citizens, will have to leave the Union although they voted 56% to remain. The country would suffer greatly if a physical border with its northern sister is established: freight transport, citizen mobility, European funding and even peace between Northern and Southern Ireland would be called into question.

Will Scotland and Ireland be the big losers of the Brexit or will they find the way to reunification or independence?

Will the Brexit restructure the landscape of the United Kingdom and very surely the one of Europe?

This will be the context of the 44th Ipse Meeting of August 31 and September 1, 2017 in Edinburgh on the new spaces of social protection.