COUNTRIES already in the EU could add a long delay to an independent Scotland's plans to join the union, a top academic has warned.
European law expert Professor Kenneth Armstrong of Cambridge University said political manoeuvring by current member states could double the 18-month timetable for joining the EU expected by the SNP.
He told Holyrood's European committee: "We should not be surprised if another member state - and it could be Spain - should exercise or threaten to exercise the veto."
The Spanish government is keen to discourage the independence movement in Catalonia and the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has already dismissed the SNP's claim that an independent Scotland's membership would be fast-tracked.
Mr Armstrong reminded the committee that in the 1960s the UK was kept out of the EEC by France for political reasons.
"De Gaulle said non," he said.
Political manoeuvring could add between six months and 18 months to the SNP's proposed timetable, he said.
He also warned that the SNP's proposal for fast-tracking an independent Scotland into the EU, using Article 48 of the Lisbon treaty rather than the usual accession process set out in Article 49, was "legally implausible and incredibly politically risky".
He warned: "We know that very strong elements within the Conservative Party would want to reopen treaty negotiations on a whole host of other things, which would then bog down the entire negotiation process and may ultimately lead to its failure."
Sir David Edward, a former European Court judge who also gave evidence to the committee, said the treaties were unclear on what should happen over membership in the event of Scottish independence.
He said: "So as far as the treaties go there is no solution to this problem, but I go back to what was said to me by a very experienced Dutch foreign servant, and later the Dutch foreign minister, on the problem of the euro.
"He said: 'We will find a way, we always do.'"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article