Agreeing an independent Scotland’s EU membership would be “relatively speedy”, according to the former chairman of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
Elmar Brok, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said there would be few obstacles within any potential the process because the country already meets the criteria for entry.
His comments come just days after Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said Madrid would not block an independent Scotland’s EU bid.
Mr Brok said: “There would be not much obstacles because all the laws already apply and are implemented in Scotland.
“So a lot of things which we have to negotiate with the candidate countries we have not to negotiate with Scotland because Scotland has already done it.
“If the political agreement would be there, then the process would be relatively speedy.”
The MEP also denied suggestions that if Scotland left the UK it would have to join a queue of countries seeking EU membership.
“There is not a queue,” he told BBC Scotland.
Instead, he said every country is considered “on its own merits if they fulfil the conditions”, adding: “Scotland fulfils already now the conditions”.
His comments come as Nicola Sturgeon continues to demand a second Scottish independence referendum is held to give people the choice between leaving the UK and Brexit.
While the majority of voters in the 2016 referendum opted to quit the EU, 62% of Scots backed remain, resulting in the stand-off between the First Minister and Prime Minister Theresa May, who has argued “now is not the time” for another vote on independence.
Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, said: “Elmar Brock is one of the European Parliament’s most senior and long serving members – with decades of experience.
“His comments on Scotland are welcome and he joins a growing list of senior decision makers from around Europe who are making a common sense case for Scotland.
“This puts paid to Tory myths that somehow Scotland would somehow find itself blocked form EU membership.
“EU countries want to be constructive with Scotland and will respect the democratic will of the Scottish people if we choose to be independent.”
Scottish Conservative MEP Ian Duncan said: “‘Mr Brok is correct. An independent Scotland which is happy to sign up to membership of the single currency, the Schengen Agreement allowing passport free movement, the Common Fisheries Policy, to name but a few, could probably look forward to a ‘speedy’ progression.
“The reality, however, is that membership for an independent Scotland would look nothing like the terms currently enjoyed by the UK, terms that were rejected by 38 percent of Scots.
“Maybe that is why it is now hard to tell what the SNP’s policy over Europe is.”
