Scottish independence: issue ‘does not affect’ Spain

THE SNP has welcomed comments by Spain’s foreign minister that his government would “have nothing to say” on independence as further evidence that Scotland will remain a member of the EU.

Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has been widely reported as insisting that the constitutional arrangements of UK nations are “their own business”.

Independence critics have raised fears that Spain may veto Scotland’s EU membership on the grounds that it would encourage separatism in its own country.

Speaking in London on Friday, he said: “If the two parts of the United Kingdom are in agreement that it is in accord with their constitutional arrangement, written or unwritten, Spain would have nothing to say. We would simply maintain that it does not affect us.”

Mr Garcia-Margallo said the Spanish constitution was based on the “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation”.

He added: “The constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom are one thing, those of Spain another, and it is their own business if they decide to separate from one another.”

SNP MSP Aileen McLeod, a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Europe and external affairs committee, said: “These comments are welcome and totally undermine the increasingly ridiculous scaremongering campaign by the Tories and the other anti-independence parties.

“The reality is, as legal, constitutional and European experts have confirmed, that Scotland is part of the territory of the European Union and the people of Scotland are citizens of the EU.

“There is no provision for either of these circumstances to change upon independence, and the rest of the UK will be in exactly the same position.”