Scottish independence: William Hague joins Scots-EU debate
William Hague will launch the UK government's latest paper in Glasgow Foreign Secretary William Hague has said an independent Scottish state may not be able to negotiate the same terms of EU membership as the UK.
Mr Hague is in Glasgow to unveil the latest UK government paper.
He told BBC Scotland people "should be in no doubt" that if Scotland leaves the UK it would have to reapply for European Union membership.
First Minister Alex Salmond has argued Scotland's membership of the EU would be negotiated "from within".
He has stated that the terms of Scotland's membership would be negotiated during the period between a Yes vote in September this year and independence day in March 2016.
The first minister said that the EU would be keen to keep Scotland as a member and it would be open to discussions on matters such as the single currency.
Hold a referendumMr Hague told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that even if the European negotiations were "constructively-minded" it would still be a complicated process.
The foreign secretary said Scotland would be obliged to join the Euro single currency, which the Scottish government had said it would not do.
He said Scotland would also need to sign the Schengen agreement on border controls, which is "incompatible" with the Common Travel Area plans put forward by the Scottish government.
Mr Hague further claimed that Scotland would lose out on cash from the rebate which the UK gets from the EU.
The Conservative minister said his own party's plans to hold a referendum on EU membership if it was to win next year's UK general election were not an immediate threat.
He said: "I think it is a more immediately, dramatically uncertain world if Scotland were to vote to separate itself from the UK this coming year because what we are trying to achieve by 2017 is a reformed EU that we can recommend the whole of the UK stays in.
"Scotland in effect is going to have two referendums on whether to leave the EU and one of them is in September.
"People should be in no doubt, if part of a member state leaves the EU it has to reapply for membership and that will be a process of uncertain length and unknown outcome in terms of the terms that are negotiated and probably great cost. It means playing more to get less from the EU."
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accused the UK government of acting against Scotland's interests.
In a letter to Mr Hague, she wrote: "Regardless of the outcome of the referendum on September 18, people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will always be Scotland's closest friends and neighbours.
"I also have no doubt that, in the event of a Yes vote, governments of an independent Scotland will work extremely closely with future Westminster governments.
"In European, international, defence and a range of other matters, our interests will often coincide and we will be able to work together constructively."
She went on to accuse Conservative politicians of putting the UK's membership of the EU in doubt, "driven by a fear of UKIP which does not exist in Scotland".
The deputy first minister also renewed her call for Prime Minister David Cameron to debate with Mr Salmond ahead of the referendum.
"The prime minister has insisted he will not take part in a debate with the first minister because, he says, it is a matter for voters in Scotland and not him or his government," she wrote.
"This position is increasingly hard to sustain given the succession of Westminster ministers continuing to make day trips to Scotland to oppose independence."
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