EU vows to stay out of Scottish independence vote

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union vowed Monday to stay out of the Scottish independence referendum debate as questions flew over Scotland's prospects of membership in the bloc if it splits from Britain.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso angered Scottish nationalists when he warned in February it would be "difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland to become an EU member.

But commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen refused Monday to comment when journalists repeatedly asked what would happen if Scotland voted to secede from the United Kingdom in the September 18 referendum.

"The European Commission very much respects the ongoing democratic process and recalls... that it is for the Scottish and for the British citizens to decide on the future of Scotland," she told a daily press briefing.

"We do not feel at this time, in the... middle of the final stages of the campaign, that we should interfere with what is an internal democratic process.

"This is why I'm not going to now detail what we've already very, very clearly described and explained in the past."

Commission staff then provided a copy of a letter Barroso sent to a member of Britain's House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament, in December 2012 saying any state obtaining independence would have to apply as a new state.

"A new independent state would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the EU and the treaties would no longer apply on its territory," the letter said.

Any European state which respects the EU's principles "may apply to become a member of the EU," it said.

All 28 member states would then have to ratify the entry of the new member at the end of a negotiating process.

Scottish nationalists however say that the procedure would be different because it is already effectively part of the bloc.

The campaign for Scottish independence is heating up as an opinion poll published over the weekend put the separatists ahead of the pro-union camp for the first time.

In a BBC interview in February, Barroso, who heads the EU executive, said it "will be extremely difficult to get the approval of all the other (EU) member states to have a new member coming from one member state."

The comments drew a sharp rebuke from Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party (SNP) is spearheading the pro-independence campaign.

"The question of Scotland's independent membership of the EU is a matter for the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland and the views of other member states -- not the European Commission," she said.