Joining EU 'difficult if not impossible' for Scotland, Barroso warns

The prospect of an independent Scotland being allowed to join the EU would be "difficult, if not impossible," European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said on Sunday (16 February).

During an interview on the BBC, the chief of the EU executive implied that countries such as Spain, which is currently anxious to prevent its own region of Catalonia becoming a breakaway state, would veto Scottish attempts to join the EU.

"I believe it's going to be extremely difficult, if not ...