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IN the wake of the Brexit vote, Nicola Sturgeon poses proudly for an official photo at her emergency EU summit.

The picture of the First Minister with consuls and diplomats in the drawing room of her official residence at Bute House looks like a high-powered gathering on Thursday.

And the meeting with representatives of Italy, Poland, France, Romania, Spain and Germany may well help her aim of keeping Scotland in the EU.

Sturgeon had called a summit of EU consuls general to reassure EU citizens living here that they are still welcome. But more than half of those posing with Sturgeon and ministers Angela Constance and Fiona Hyslop in the Scottish Government’s photo are not diplomats at all.

They have only honorary titles, with little power or influence and usually no consular function. Some are Scots who have links to the countries which bestowed the title on them.

In fact, the honorary consul for Estonia is Iain Lawson, a rat catcher from Paisley whose link with the Baltic state began when he visited Tallinn with the Tartan Army in the 90s.

He is required to fly the Estonian flag on national holidays. Here’s a closer look at some of those honorary consuls.

● John Clifford, Austria. He’s a member of Edinburgh University’s general council business committee and a former councillor.

● Frank Gill, Netherlands. He is a partner in a legal firm in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

● Constantinos Hajivassiliou, Cyprus. A Glasgow surgeon.

(Image: Scottish Government)

● Iain Lawson, Estonia. An independent facilities services professional in Paisley.

● Peter Hillier, Luxembourg. A director at wealth management firm Cazenove Capital in Edinburgh.

● Yves Lemarchand, Belgium. Managing director at Experience Scotland Conference and Incentives.

● Craig Murray, Slovakia. In January, Slovak ambassador Lubomir Rehak tweeted that Murray had “no consular functions”.

● James Rust, Portugal. The lawyer is a partner in Morton Fraser LLP.

● Ana Wersun, Slovenia. A physiotherapist in Edinburgh.

Others in the picture do have official functions, such as consuls general Carlo Perrotta (Italy), Dariusz Adler (Poland), Emmanuel Cocher (France) Miguel Utray Delgado (Spain), Mark Hanniffy (Ireland), Jens-Peter Voss (Germany) and Romania’s head of consular office Mihai Delcea.