Financial Times: Spain could “consider” Scotland’s EU admission if independence process is “legal”

London (ACN).- The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said, in an interview with the Financial Times, that Spain could “consider” the admission of an independent Scotland within the EU. In a front-page article published in the prestigious newspaper this Monday, Margallo argued that if the Scottish people gained independence “in accordance with the legal and institutional procedures”, Spain would not interfere. However, the minister warned that the Scots would have to “join the waiting line and ask for admission” to enter the EU, which would take months. The Financial Times journalists, Tobias Buck from Madrid and Mure Dickie from Edinburgh, underlined that “Margallo’s nuanced stance towards Scotland stood in marked contrast to his uncompromising rhetoric on Catalonia”. Indeed, the Spanish Minister “warned Catalan leaders in particular not to go down the route of a unilateral declaration of independence”, emphasising that the Scottish and the Catalan cases were “fundamentally different”. The President of the Catalan People’s Party – Margallo’s party - reacted to the interview and stated that his words had been misinterpreted: Spain would assess Scotland’s admission but would not approve it.

“Spain has no intention of interfering in Scotland’s push for independence and is willing to consider an eventual Scottish application to join the EU as a separate state”, stated Margallo in the Financial Times. The article, signed by Tobias Buck and Mure Dickie, warned that Margallo’s comments would “bolster the nationalist campaign” in Scotland because “Madrid has long been among the most vocal opponents of separatist movements in Europe” and has been working “to contain secessionist pressures in its own region of Catalonia”.

If Scotland achieves independence legally, its EU admission “can be considered”

“If Scotland becomes independent in accordance with the legal and institutional procedures, it will ask for admission [to the EU]. If that process has indeed been legal, that request can be considered. If not, then not,” explained Margallo to the Financial Times.

“We don’t interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. If Britain’s constitutional order allows – and it seems that it does allow – Scotland to choose independence, we have nothing to say about this”, stated Margallo.

However, the Minister refused to comment on whether Spain would veto an immediate admission but he insisted that the cases of Scotland and Catalonia were “fundamentally different”.

“An uncompromising rhetoric” on Catalonia’s independence claims

According to the prestigious British newspaper however, the Spanish Minister’s approach to Scottish independence “stands in marked contrast to his uncompromising rhetoric on Catalonia”. Indeed, the Financial Times explain that “Madrid would continue to resist a Catalan plan to hold its own referendum on independence less than two months after the Scottish vote in September”

The journalists who wrote the article, Tobias Buck, from Madrid, and Mure Dickie, from Edinburgh, reveal that Margallo compared Catalonia to “unrecognised break-away regions” such as “South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Somaliland, all of which remain in “international limbo”, according to the Minister. “A state born through a unilateral declaration of independence would have no international recognition whatsoever. It would be absolutely isolated in the concert of nations. Such a state would not have access to the United Nations system or to the World Bank or the IMF,” insisted Margallo in the interview.

The EU admission of an independent Scotland or Catalonia will be “vetoed” according to the PPC

Following the interview, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, the President of the Catalan branch of the People’s Party, which runs the Spanish Government, stated that Margallo “had only said that each and every one of the EU members had to assess the applications [for EU membership]”. “This doesn’t mean that the country will be admitted”, she underlined. Referring to the possibility of an independent Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders or Corsica, Sánchez-Camacho said she was convinced that they would not be admitted in the EU “because the other countries would veto them”.