Scottish chief Nicola Sturgeon were given a “sympathetic” hearing in Brussels on Wednesday as she pleaded her case for Scots to stay in the european, displaying how Britain’s vote to depart the bloc may want to splinter the UK.
but she drew a rebuff from Spain and a combined response from ecu officers.
ecu leaders met for the first time without Britain. Outgoing prime Minister David Cameron flew home after briefing his 27 friends on Tuesday night on ultimate week’s referendum defeat.
seasoned-independence chief Sturgeon has stated that Scotland, wherein voters sponsored staying within the european with the aid of a close to 2-1 majority, need to now not be dragged out of the european in opposition to its will.
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She desires to negotiate directly with Brussels to defend the club rights of Scots – and is open to a brand new independence referendum if this is the handiest manner to preserve Scotland in the bloc.
but Spanish top Minister Mariano Rajoy, struggling to save you the independent place of Catalonia from breaking away, stated Madrid would oppose any european negotiation with Scotland.
“If the UK leaves, Scotland leaves,” he said after the primary meeting of the 27 eu partners with out Britain.
Sturgeon, pointedly referring to Rajoy as “acting” top-quality following the unclear outcome of Sunday’s Spanish election, said she was in no way amazed to hear such “beginning positions” from Madrid and she or he turned into nicely aware about the problems.
“we are very early in this process,” she told reporters, stressing that her priority became to have Scotland’s voice heard. “i’ve been heartened these days to hear a willingness to listen.”
A spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker, the eu commission chief who irked some ecu diplomats with the aid of meeting Sturgeon at such a important time in eu relations with London, pressured that he had listened but might now not interfere in British domestic politics.
EUROPE VS LONDON
The 27 eu leaders despatched a company message to London that there might be “no negotiations of any kind” on future trade relations till the United Kingdom officially triggers the eu treaty’s exit clause.
“This ought to be achieved as speedy as feasible,” they said in a joint announcement.
In a clear caution to Britain’s depart campaigners, delivered at the remaining minute, the 27 also stated that access to Europe’s prized unmarried marketplace “requires recognition of all four freedoms” of motion for goods, capital, persons and services.
leave campaigners including former London Mayor Boris Johnson, a favorite to prevail Cameron as Conservative birthday celebration
leader and high minister, have stated they need loose get right of entry to to the ecu not unusual market, however might keep the proper to govern migration.
Cameron, who campaigned to stay within the eu and introduced he could step down via October after he misplaced remaining week’s referendum, stated on Tuesday that Britain’s future relations with the bloc may want to hinge on its willingness to rethink free movement of people, which he blamed for the referendum result.
SYMPATHY FOR SCOTLAND
there was a surge in sympathy in lots of elements of Europe for the five.5 million Scots, whose sturdy vote to live within the european became overridden with the aid of the English, who outnumber them 10 to one. Britain as an entire voted fifty two-48 percentage to go away.
but nations like Spain that have handled nearby separatism are strongly opposed to any direct european talks with Scotland. lower back in London, Cameron advised Parliament negotiations had to be executed by using the United Kingdom as an entire.
ecu Council President Donald Tusk, the chairman of the summit of eu leaders, pointedly declined Sturgeon’s request for a assembly. some ecu international locations known as Juncker’s choice to satisfy Sturgeon a provocation designed to raise pressure on London to offer formal note to end. He rejected such tips.
“Scotland has won the proper to be heard in Brussels,” Juncker told a information conference. A spokesman said after the two met that he had listened to Sturgeon however stressed the difficulty have to be dealt with inside the context of U.okay. constitutional affairs.
officials briefed on talks Sturgeon held with senior figures in the european Parliament said she discussed whether or not there has been any felony way that a breakaway Scotland may by hook or by crook remain within the european once the UK finished its so-referred to as Brexit.
ecu officials careworn, as they did before Scots voted against independence in a 2014 referendum, that Scotland couldn’t observe to sign up for the Union till it was a sovereign kingdom. Senior officials dismissed the belief that Scotland may want to take over the empty British chair at the eu Council table.
Sturgeon has raised the chance of the Scottish parliament trying to block Brexit legislation to maintain the whole united kingdom within the european, but has additionally stated she believes a brand new referendum on Scottish independence is now quite possibly.
difficulty
With the european going through years of uncertainty in negotiating the withdrawal of its second-biggest financial system, the Scottish issue is a hassle maximum governments would alternatively keep away from.
“this is a way of setting stress on London to trigger the go out clause,” a senior reputable in a single ecu government stated of ecu efforts to bop London to the negotiating desk, whilst Cameron has insisted only his successor will set the clock ticking on a -yr deadline to withdrawal.
The leaders released a period of political mirrored image, with their next informal meeting set for September in Bratislava, culminating in a fixed of reform proposals to get a better grip on migration, bolstering protection and growing jobs and increase.
“Europeans expect us to do higher with regards to imparting security, prosperity in addition to wish for a higher future. We need to deliver on this, in a manner that unites us, not least inside the interest of the younger,” a joint declaration of the 27 said.
Belgian high Minister Charles Michel known as the British vote a aa003e33992aa1e42449a037e2560bf2 for Europe and stated: “It’s essential to have this meeting of 27 as it will display the harmony of the 27.”
but officers said that facade of harmony was punctured in the assembly through calls from Poland and the Czech Republic for the european to do less and return greater powers to countrywide capitals. each international locations’ foreign ministers have referred to as for Juncker to step apart after the Brexit vote – a suggestion he disregarded.
Juncker in advance challenged Cameron’s rationalization of the referendum defeat, saying successive British leaders had engaged in “Brussels bashing” and must not be amazed if their residents had believed them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel doused any hopes that Britain would possibly but opposite its selection, warning after the dinner with Cameron towards “wishful questioning”.
even as she persuaded fellow leaders to offer London extra time at hand in its formal note to quit, Merkel stated Britain couldn’t drag out the procedure with no end in sight. She made clear that a new government might no longer be allowed to “cherry-pick out” the components of eu club advantages that it liked.