LEADERS of France and Spain have dashed hopes that Scotland can negotiate its own deal to remain in the EU during Nicola Sturgeon's unprecedented Brussels charm offensive.
The First Minister, who flew into Brussels yesterday in a bid to discuss Scotland's EU status and win allies ahead of a "highly likely" independence referendum, met with senior figures in the 28-nation bloc and claimed to have found "open doors" and a "willingness to listen".
Sources close to the SNP leader immediately hailed the trip as a resounding success, despite Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and French President Francois Hollande bluntly pouring cold water on Ms Sturgeon's drive to begin a dialogue with other member states with a view to retaining Scotland's EU status when the UK quits.
Mariano Rajoy, the Prime Minister of Spain, which has proved a staunch opponent to Scottish independence due to fears it could encourage a secessionist movement in Catalonia, said: "If the United Kingdom leaves, so does Scotland. Scotland has no competences to negotiate with the EU. The Spanish government rejects any negotiation with anyone other than the United Kingdom."
Francois Hollande, the President of France, echoed the comments, saying: "The negotiations will be conducted with the United Kingdom, not with a part of the United Kingdom."
The First Minister dismissed the remarks from the Spanish as an unsurprising "starting position" and said she respected that negotiations would be carried out at UK level, despite saying at the weekend that she would embark on "immediate discussions" with other member states to explore "all the possible options to protect Scotland’s place in the EU."
While Spain could potentially decide Scotland's EU fate, with agreement all governments needed to approve the accession of a new member, senior SNP sources contrasted the largely warm reception Ms Sturgeon received with painful efforts to engage with the bloc ahead of the 2014 independence referendum, characterising the experience as "like night and day".
The Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny also emerged as a key ally, after he revealed that he had spoken on behalf of Ms Sturgeon at a summit of EU leaders on Tuesday to discuss the implications of the EU referendum, which saw more than 60 per cent of Scots vote to stay but the Leave campaign claim victory UK-wide. He passed on her message that Scotland should not be "dragged" out of the EU against its will.
Ms Sturgeon met with the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, and in a significant coup, secured a last-minute hearing with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with Ms Sturgeon, Mr Juncker pledged to "listen carefully" to the First Minister, acknowledging that "Scotland won the right to be heard in Brussels". However, he echoed the positions of other EU states when he said he considered Scotland's EU status an internal UK issue for now.
He said: "We don't have the intention, neither [European Council president] Donald Tusk nor myself, to interfere in an inner British process that is not our duty and this is not our job."
It has been suggested that short of independence Scotland could retain a special EU status within the UK, a notion that was endorsed by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday. However, The Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers dismissed the suggestion that regions that backed a Remain vote could have a relationship with the EU distinct from England and Wales.
Ms Sturgeon accepted that Scotland did not have an "automatic, easy path" ahead but said last night that she left the Belgian capital "in good heart and optimistic".
She added: "If there is a way for Scotland to stay, I am determined to try and find that way. I've found enormous interest in the referendum result, as you would expect, and I've also had a sympathetic response to the position Scotland now finds itself in, facing the prospect of being taken out of the European Union against our will, a position not of our making and not one we wanted.
"If we get to a point where it seems to be the case that the only way of protecting Scotland's relationship with Europe is by looking at the option of becoming an independent country, then that's a choice I think the Scottish people have the right to make - but I'm not saying we are at that point yet."
Ms Sturgeon's predecessor, Alex Salmond, said the meeting with Mr Junker signalled "a very significant shift" in Scotland's relationship with Europe.
He recalled how he "had the door shut" on him by former Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso when he sought talks on keeping an independent Scotland in the EU in 2014.
He added: "The choice that people in Scotland potentially have to make in the next independence referendum may be between Europe and London - the European Union or the British union."
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