Nicola Sturgeon is likely to suffer fresh setbacks as she heads to Brussels after being snubbed by one of the EU’s most senior figures, The Courier can reveal.
Sources at the top of the European Commission, which proposes legislation and implements the bloc’s decisions, told us it cannot open negotiations with the First Minister because it must “respect” that Scotland is part of the UK.
It comes as she was rebuffed by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, who said it would be inappropriate to meet her given Scotland’s UK status.
As the SNP leader was given clear Holyrood backing to find a way of keeping in the EU, we asked insiders if the executive body would engage in direct negotiations with Scotland about maintaining its EU status.
One said: “Scotland is part of the UK and the Commission respects the internal constitutional arrangements.”
Ms Sturgeon will make an initial visit to Brussels today to meet MEPs and the president of the European Parliament as part of her bid to save Scotland from Brexit. Scotland has voted to stay in the EU but faces being kept in by votes cast in England and Wales.
But a spokesman for Mr Tusk said: “Given the situation in the UK he feels it is not appropriate [to meet Ms Sturgeon], but he is grateful for the invitation.” In Holyrood, the SNP leader secured the backing of MSPs to lobby European leaders to avoid a Scottish break with Brussels.
Ms Sturgeon she said she is “utterly determined” to protect Scotland’s place in the EU. She told MSPs yesterday she is “emphatically not” asking Holyrood to endorse a second referendum, but could return to seek that mandate if it judged to be the best option to stay in the EU.
Her spokesman said yesterday she still believes another independence referendum is “highly likely”.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives leader, whose party abstained from yesterday’s SNP motion, said: “You do not dampen the shockwaves caused by one referendum by lighting the fuse for another.”
The Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, whose party backed the motion, said “all options” must be explored by Ms Sturgeon “including a federalised United Kingdom which could see those nations of the UK who voted to remain, retain their membership or achieve associated status”.
The First Minister’s spokesman said: “We look forward to a range of meetings and discussions with those from the EU institutions and from individual member states – and it is already very clear that there is a great deal of goodwill towards Scotland from across Europe.”
Ms Sturgeon has said there are “no rules, no precedent” for negotiating Scotland’s place in the EU.