Alex Salmond’s plans for an independent Scotland to smoothly join the European Union have been dealt a painful blow after the Scottish first minister’s proposals were dismissed by Spain’s prime minister.
Mariano Rajoy said his government believed an independent Scotland could only apply to join the EU from outside the organisation as a new state, as he warned against regions of Europe embarking on “solo adventures in an uncertain future”.
His intervention confirms long-held suspicions that the Madrid government will resist the Scottish government’s plans because of its rejection of Catalonian independence, which has seen large marches in Barcelona in favour of secession.
While Rajoy’s government faces an election in late 2015, before Scotland formally seeks to become independent, it will be seen as an effective veto on immediate Scottish entry to the EU, threatening to have a fatal impact on Salmond’s hopes of winning next year’s referendum.
Already trailing in the polls, Salmond has repeatedly insisted that EU membership for Scotland will be smooth and pain-free, and would allow Scotland to retain sterling as its currency, the UK’s opt-outs on policies such as Schengen border controls and the UK’s rebate, Guardian informs.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the French president, François Hollande, Rajoy said: “It’s very clear to me, as it is for everybody else in the world, that a country that would obtain independence from the EU would remain out of the EU, and that is good for Scottish citizens to know and for all EU citizens to know.”
Rajoy said EU treaties “apply only to member states that have agreed and ratified them, and if a part of one member state cleaves from the member state, it converts itself into a third part with relation to the EU.”
“That is the law and that law applies.”
