The Huffington Post
The EU citizenship of the Scottish people may be up for negotiation if the nation becomes independent, the EU’s top policymaker has suggested.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has apparently suggested that the EU citizenship of people in a region that secedes from a member state would have to be “negotiated within the international legal order”.
Unionist parties say the comments expose the Scottish Government’s claim that Scotland would automatically be accepted into the EU as “total nonsense”.
The Scottish Government maintain that there is nothing in Barosso’s response that suggests that Scotland will not retain its place in the EU.
Meanwhile, two veteran nationalists have told the Press Association that Scotland’s ongoing membership of the EU cannot be taken for granted.
Independent MSP Margo MacDonald and her husband Jim Sillars, both former SNP deputy leaders, believe further negotiation will be required.
And Sillars, who remains an SNP member, believes other EU member states could block Scotland’s entry into the EU, particularly if party rebels succeed in their bid to pull Scotland out of Nato.
