The French president and Spanish prime minister have both said they are opposed to the EU negotiating potential membership for Scotland.
Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy said he “believes everyone is extremely against it” and that “if the UK leaves, Scotland leaves”.
President Francois Hollande of France insisted the EU would make no advance deal with Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon is in Brussels for talks with senior EU officials.
The Scottish first minister has pledged to protect Scotland’s interests in the EU following the Brexit vote.
She has raised the possibility of a second independence referendum, but has said all of the potential options for keeping Scotland in the single market would be explored.
Ms Sturgeon is due to meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker later, but was told by European Council president Donald Tusk that a meeting with him would not be appropriate at this time.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with Ms Sturgeon, Mr Juncker said: “Scotland won the right to be heard in Brussels so I will listen carefully to what the first minister will tell me.
“But we don’t have the intention, neither Donald Tusk nor myself, to interfere in an inner British process that is not our duty and this is not our job.”
Image caption
Mr Rajoy and Mr Hollande were in Brussels for a summit of European leaders to discuss the Brexit fallout
In other developments:
- UK Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that the best way to secure Scotland’s place in the European single market was for the UK to negotiate the “closest possible relationship” with the EU.
- Mr Cameron added: “Our membership of the European Union is a UK membership, and that is where we should take our negotiating stance”.
- The prime minister also said he raised Scotland with the European Council and he was glad Ms Sturgeon was having meetings in Brussels
- US bank JP Morgan has said it now expects Scotland to vote for independence and introduce its own currency before Britain leaves the European Union in 2019.
- JP Morgan economist Malcolm Barr said in a note to clients: “Our base case is that Scotland will vote for independence and institute a new currency at that point (2019)”
- Follow the latest Brexit developments
Mr Rajoy said after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels that he wanted to be “very clear Scotland does not have the competence to negotiate with the European Union”.
He added: “Spain opposes any negotiation by anyone other than the government of United Kingdom.
“I am extremely against it, the treaties are extremely against it and I believe everyone is extremely against it. If the United Kingdom leaves… Scotland leaves.”
Spain was a vocal opponent of Scottish independence ahead of the 2014 referendum, largely because of the situation in Catalonia where there is a strong independence movement.
Meanwhile, Mr Hollande said: “The negotiations will be conducted with the United Kingdom, not with a part of the United Kingdom”.
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Reuters
Image caption
Ms Sturgeon’s trip to Brussels on Wednesday will not involve meetings with Donald Tusk (left) but she will meet Jean-Claude Juncker
What might Nicola Sturgeon ask European leaders?
By the BBC’s Scotland editor Sarah Smith
Today Scotland’s first minister will focus on reminding the EU that Scotland voted to remain.
Scotland “did not let them down” as SNP MEP Alyn Smith put it yesterday.
And she will ask that Scotland be given special consideration in the Brexit negotiations.
But this trip is also about telling Europe that Scotland may soon be an independent country which wants to remain inside the EU or, if it has to, rejoin on the most favourable terms possible.
If there is to be another referendum on Scottish independence it is vital that Scotland is made to feel it will receive a warmer welcome in Europe than was on offer in 2014.
Scotland voted by 62% to 38% in favour of remaining in the EU in last week’s referendum but faces being taken out of the EU after the UK as a whole voted to leave – a situation Ms Sturgeon has described as a “democratic disgrace”
Ms Sturgeon met EU Parliament president Martin Schulz earlier on Wednesday, as well as Gianni Pitella, the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, who is now an MEP.
Mr Schulz said he had “listened carefully and learned a lot”, while Mr Pitella said he was “sympathetic” to Scotland’s situation but that it was an issue to be solved within the UK.
Ms Sturgeon said her series of meetings were aimed at “making people understand that Scotland, unlike other parts of the United Kingdom, doesn’t want to leave the European Union”.
She added: “We are at a very early stage of this process. I’ve set out very clearly Scotland’s desire to protect our relationship with the European Union but I don’t underestimate the challenges that lie ahead for us in seeking to find a path.”
Image copyright
Reuters
Image caption
Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt was among those to meet Ms Sturgeon in Brussels
SNP MEP Alyn Smith said there was a lot of “goodwill” towards Scotland in Brussels.
Mr Smith received a standing ovation at the European Parliament on Tuesday after urging his colleagues “do not let Scotland down” in the wake of the Brexit vote.
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “The doors in Brussels are open and there is a willingness to speak to Scotland.”
Labour MEP David Martin, who was appointed to an expert panel on the EU set up by the first minister on Tuesday, welcomed Ms Sturgeon’s visit to Brussels.
He said: “I’m not a member of the SNP, I’m not a supporter of the SNP, but I think the first minister has acted extremely competently in this process.
“I think coming to Brussels early to test the water – she’s not going to get any decisions today – on where we are in terms of relationship with the European Union and how we might take that forward, I think is very positive.”
It comes the day after Holyrood debated the EU referendum outcome, with Ms Sturgeon telling the chamber: “These times call for principles, purpose and clarity – in short, for leadership.
Her commitment to “maintain a strong Scotland in Europe” won cross-party support.
But both the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats said the aftermath of the vote should not be used to launch a second Scottish independence referendum.
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Brexit: Spain and France oppose Scotland EU talks
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