European commission reasserts that Scotland would have no automatic right to being part of EU if it voted to leave UK

A senior EU official has cast doubt over claims that an independent Scotland could automatically join the EU or inherit the UK’s membership after Brexit.

Jacqueline Minor, the European commission’s head of representation in the UK, said Scotland would need to formally apply after leaving the UK, although it could be fast-tracked because it already complies with EU rules and regulations.

Speaking immediately after Scotland’s voters backed remaining in the EU by 62% to 38% in last June’s referendum, the former first minister Alex Salmond said it would be a logical option for an independent Scotland to take over the UK’s membership of the EU post-Brexit.

Scottish parliament backs symbolic motion rejecting article 50 Read more

The former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, now the European parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, implied he was sympathetic to giving Scotland automatic membership. “It’s wrong that Scotland might be taken out of EU, when it voted to stay,” he tweeted after the referendum.



Scotland’s future membership of the EU as an independent state has reemerged with Nicola Sturgeon, the current first minister, making preparations for a fresh referendum on leaving the UK and publishing a draft referendum bill last year.

Despite opposition among Scottish voters to a fast second referendum before Brexit takes place, Sturgeon has indicated she wants to stage it before the UK formally leaves the EU in 2019 to increase Scotland’s chances of negotiating an unbroken transition into the EU.

She has yet to confirm that a vote will be held, but officials in No 10 are sketching out strategies and options with the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson in case Sturgeon calls one for 2018.

Minor said the commission’s position on Scottish membership had not changed since the independence referendum in 2014, when it repeatedly said Scotland could not automatically take up separate membership just because it was part of an existing member state.

“The position in Scotland hasn’t changed,” Minor said. There is a clear process for any applicant country under article 49 of the European treaties. “That would also apply to Scotland. If Scotland became an independent country I think article 49 is the normal starting point,” she said.

Minor, who is the commission’s spokeswoman in the UK, also implied that timing could also be an issue since Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission, had said he did not want to see any more enlargement of the EU beyond its current 28 members during his term of office.

That ends in 2020, and there were already four east European countries queued up as candidate members.

“There are a number of official candidate countries – Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, [but] they are still quite some way away from meeting the criteria for membership. And obviously were Scotland to become independent, they would join that list.

“Now, it might be easier for an independent Scotland to meet those criteria. The fact that all your legislation has to be in alignment with existing European rules would presumably not be too difficult for Scotland, compared with, say, Montenegro. And that might enable them to move faster than others.”

Scotland could also be expected to sign up to the euro – an option the Scottish National party has repeatedly rejected. “All member countries are committed to eventual membership of the euro with the exception of the opt-outs that exist for the UK and Denmark. But there is no stipulated timeline for joining the euro,” Minor said.

Minor predicted that the formal article 50 process for leaving the UK could be completed quickly and signed by a majority of EU member states by the end of 2018, up to six months earlier than the two years set out in the treaties.

She added that agreeing new free trade deals and the other terms for the UK’s new relationship with the EU would take far longer, and would need a transition period while that was negotiated.

If article 50 was agreed and signed by September 2018, that could pose significant timing issues for Sturgeon. Observers believe she would want to allow six months for a referendum campaign, forcing her to call the referendum early in 2018.

Her remarks fueled a fresh spat between Labour and the SNP, after Scottish Labour’s Europe spokesman Lewis Macdonald said Minor had meant an independent Scotland would need to join the queue behind the four existing candidates.

“As the SNP was repeatedly told during the referendum campaign, an independent Scotland would have to apply to join the EU like any other country,” Macdonald said.

“Alex Salmond tried to dismiss this, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Now it’s time for the SNP to be honest with voters – an independent Scotland would have to join the queue.”

An SNP spokesman said that was a “remarkably selective account” of Minor’s views. “We are focused on protecting Scotland from the catastrophic effects of a hard Tory Brexit which would cost 80,000 jobs in Scotland over the next decade – meanwhile, Labour failed to secure a single concession from the Tories on the article 50 bill, yet they voted for it anyway. At every level, Labour’s response to the EU referendum has been pathetic.”