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Scottish First Minister's motion on implications of EU referendum for Scotland passed at parliament

Xinhua, June 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Scottish parliament on Tuesday passed Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's motion on the implications of the EU referendum for Scotland.

Launched by the ruling Scottish National Party leader, the motion was passed with the backing of 92 Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and 31 abstentions.

Making a statement at the Scottish parliament earlier, Sturgeon said she put forward the motion to ask the Scottish parliament to give her and the Scottish government a mandate to continue the work to explore every option for retaining Scotland's relationship with the EU.

She made it clear that "a vote for this motion is not a vote for a referendum on independence," stating she was emphatically not asking the Scottish parliament during Tuesday's debate to endorse another referendum on independence.

"If the government does conclude that the best or only way to protect Scotland's place in the EU is through a referendum on independence, we will return to parliament with that judgment and it will then, at that time, be for parliament to decide," said Sturgeon.

She stressed that her starting point for the debate was to protect Scotland's relationship with the EU, and that the motion launched called on the Scottish government to report back to the Scottish parliament and its European Committee.

Earlier, she set out for the Scottish parliament the action the Scottish government had taken since Thursday's EU referendum in which Britain voted to leave the EU but Scotland chose to remain in.

Sturgeon said she had set up a "standing council" of experts to provide her with advice following the Brexit vote, and would visit Brussels to set out Scotland's position and interests to representatives of the major groups in the European Parliament and with European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

In a historic referendum on June 23, Britain voted to leave the EU after 43 years in the bloc. The Leave campaign received 51.9 percent of the votes, against 48.1 percent for the Remain side.

However, Scotland voted 62 percent in favor of remaining in the EU, with the majority in each council of its 32 local authority areas voting to remain. Endit