Scotland, The EU and Donald Rumsfeld.

One of the important issues of the Independence Referendum in Scotland is whether after a YES vote Scotland will have to apply for readmission into the European Union .

No questions have been asked about the position of the rump ofd the UK that will remain although its criteria will have drastically changed especially with the loss of oil revenue.

Of course the NO side aided by the media have seized on every negative bit of news to come out of Europe to suggest that common sense will not prevail and Scotland will not automatically carry (but as a full member) of the EU.

Only last week the Torygraph was  claiming that it was hammer blow to Alex Salmond and the YES campaign.

Alex Salmond’s claims an independent Scotland would start life in the EU have appeared to suffer a major blow after the European Commission’s new president said no new states would be admitted for the next five years.

Speaking shortly before he was formally appointed to the powerful role, Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU would “mark a pause” in its enlargement and “consolidate” with 28 member states.
The intervention has potentially major ramifications for the independence debate as Mr Salmond has argued Scotland’s membership would be negotiated in the 18 months between a Yes vote in September and leaving the UK in March 2016.
But Mr Juncker’s statement suggests Scotland would be outside the EU for at least three-and-a-half years after its independence day.
Although admitting a separate Scotland would not involve a geographical expansion of the EU’s boundaries, it would mean increasing the number of member states above Mr Juncker’s cap of 28.

Pro-UK campaigners seized on the president's remarks, claiming they made it clear that a Yes vote the referendum would also be a vote to leave the EU.

But the BBC has reported that Mr Juncker's spokeswoman said he was not referring to Scotland in his comments.

Deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon said the No camp had "willfully twisted" Mr Juncker's words and demanded an apology.

She said:

 “This blatant act of dishonesty is a major blow to the credibility of the No campaign.
"In their desperation to talk Scotland down and spread fears and smears, the No camp have wilfully twisted what Mr Juncker said. They said that Mr Juncker was talking about Scotland and his spokeswoman has confirmed that he was not. Their claims now lie in tatters.
"The No campaign are guilty of distorting remarks by the newly-elected president of the European Commission, which is an extremely serious matter. They must withdraw their bogus assertions as a matter of urgency and issue a public apology."

There will be  no surprise the when Scotland on Sunday reports that 

New European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is “sympathetic” to an independent Scotland joining the EU due to his experience as a politician from a small member state, it emerged last night.
The revelation came after No campaign leaders claimed remarks by Juncker that the 28-member-EU needed “a break from enlargement” showed that Scotland would be kept out in the event of a Yes vote.
However, Scotland on Sunday has learned that the hierarchy in Brussels would be unlikely to exclude an independent Scotland from the EU as it is already signed-up to “core EU requirements” for candidate member states on gender equality and workers’ rights.
An independent Scotland’s potential membership would be treated as a “special and separate case” to nations wanting to join from regions such as the Balkans that have yet to satisfy all the rules, a senior EU source stated.

Compered to "The Hammer Blow" of a week ago the silence from the British Media has been deafening,

 Indeed the BBC simply state that 

The European Commission has declined to comment on reports its president would be "sympathetic" to an independent Scotland's membership of the EU. and tried to downplay the issue by concentrating on that Scotland on Sunday quoted an unnamed EU official as saying Jean-Claude Juncker would not want Scotland to be kept out.

What seems to be the case is that as far as the European Union is concerned   they seem to be taken    the former  US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Defence Department briefing, at heart 

"We know there are known knowns: there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: that is to say we know there are things we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know." 

Only the EU could make this  look like a policy on Scottish Independence .

Bit in reality it just a case of Common Sense . Scotland will not become an Independent Nation overnight and it will take at least a year and  there's no reason the position can be resolved by the EU in that period.

Scotland on voting YES will become a member of the EU on the day it becomes a member of the UN .