Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is to ask the UK Government to make a joint submission to the European Commission about an independent Scotland’s position in Europe.
However, sources at the Scotland Office said any such request from the Scottish Government would again be refused.
Following a stormy First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, with Scotland’s place in the European Union at the heart of it, a Scottish Government spokesman said Ms Sturgeon would be writing to Westminster “quite soon” to make her request.
A letter from the European Commission’s (EC) vice-president this week claimed comments and evidence given by Mr Barroso about an independent country needing to renegotiate EU entry from the outside were not specifically about Scotland.
The Government spokesman said the “precise scenario” EC president Jos Manuel Duro Barroso said he would need to comment about an individual independent country’s place in the EU has been set out in the Edinburgh Agreement.
Indications from the Scotland Office, though, were that the UK Government’s position on the issue had not changed and the request would be rejected.
A Scotland Office spokesman said the Edinburgh Agreement dealt solely with the legality and process of holding an independence referendum,
He added: “Scottish Government ministers have not made clear what kind of independence they would hope to negotiate there is nothing approaching a precise scenario from them.
“President Barroso has previously made clear his view that any newly-independent country that has separated from an EU member state would need to renegotiate its terms nothing in the commission vice-president’s letter contradicts that view.
“Their mandate to begin negotiations on the break-up of the UK would stem from a vote in favour of independence, which they do not have.”
The leaders of Scotland’s main political parties yesterday clashed at Holyrood over the country’s future in both the United Kingdom and Europe.
The day after Prime Minister David Cameron “completely changed” the independence debate in Scotland with his promise of an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, should the Conservatives win the next general election, the issue dominated the chamber.
First Minister Alex Salmond said Mr Cameron’s announcement meant the “threat” to Scotland’s continuing membership in Europe did not come from the SNP.
Labour leader Johann Lamont pressed Mr Salmond on comments made by the Czech Republic’s foreign minister, who said that Scotland would get a “worse deal” when negotiating its position within the EU because it was a “much smaller country with much less economic importance.”
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Ruth Davidson challenged the First Minister to give the public a say on EU membership in a referendum after independence.