BRITAIN-EU/SCOTLAND-JUNCKER Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets EU Commission President Juncker

Record ID: 149921

  • Title: BRITAIN-EU/SCOTLAND-JUNCKER Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets EU Commission President Juncker
  • Date: 2nd June 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (RECENT) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF EU COMMISSION BUILDING EU FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5R9VT4M6ILE7IAZX1LZKEIRHX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon held a private meeting with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday (June 2), the conclusion to her first visit to the EU capital Brussels as Scotland's head of government.
    Earlier, Sturgeon delivered an address to EU officials and journalists where she said British Prime minister David Cameron could provoke another independence vote if he failed to secure Britain's continued EU membership because Edinburgh sees its future in Europe.
    In a speech setting out the stark differences between the Scottish and the British governments' positions on the European Union, Sturgeon said a British exit from the bloc would spark a Scottish backlash against London.
    Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's ties with the EU before a membership referendum by the end of 2017 to meet criticism from some, particularly in Cameron's Conservative party, that the bloc's institutions have become overbearing.
    Sturgeon said Scots, who polls show to be far more in favour of remaining in the European Union than the English, would not accept being outside the bloc if a majority of British people vote to leave in a referendum.
    Sturgeon, who took office in November 2014 in the aftermath of the victory against the referendum on Scottish independence, said she believed Britain's constituent nations -- Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales -- should be required individually to support a British withdrawal for the plan to go ahead, a so-called double majority that is a feature of federalism in Canada.
    Most business leaders in Britain strongly oppose the prospect of the country leaving the EU, the biggest market for British goods, while international partners from the United States to Germany and Ireland have made it clear they oppose a British EU exit and think it would isolate Britain.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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