What do you think?

It may have become a touchstone issue anyway, but what really threw it into the spotlight was the hoo- ha over whether Alex Salmond had received legal advice on if, how and when an independent Scotland might get into the EU.

Salmond seemed to say in a TV interview in early 2012 that his Government had received legal advice telling them Scotland would sail into the EU.

A few months – and £ 20,000 in legal fees spent arguing over whether to confirm there was such advice – later, Nicola Sturgeon admitted it didn’t exist.

It was a low point for the Yes campaign and it’s clouded the issue ever since – particularly unwelcome as the i ssue is extremely muddy to begin with.

What can be said with certainty is that Scotland wants to be in the EU.

The latest poll by Sir Tom Hunter found 59% want an independent Scotland in Europe, 27% want out.

That’s more clear-cut than similar polls in the rest of the UK – though they also usually show a majority want to stay in. England is not the uniformly Eurosceptic counter to Scotland’s embracing attitude towards Europe it is sometimes portrayed by the Yes camp.

What is also agreed by almost everyone is that an independent Scotland would get into the EU.

The questions arise over how and on what terms.

As so often when it comes to the EU, the argument about how Scotland would accede is technical and bureaucratic.

The Scottish Government say it would be allowed in under Article 48 of the EU. The UK Government say it would have to be Article 49.

It’s only one digit – but it makes a big difference.

Article 48 allows for current treaties to be amended with the agreement of all EU states. On paper, this is the easiest way in.

And it could even fit with the Scottish Government’s independence timetable that ends just six months after a Yes vote in March 2016.

The trouble is, it needs everyone to agree.

The Spanish for one are certainly sending out signals suggesting they would not play ball.

If you think this independence debate is heated, you should see vote Yes, it is also voting to leave the one in Spain where Catalonia the EU and, as such, it would have wants to break away. to apply to get back in via Article

Whilst London recognised the 49. SNP’s mandate to hold a vote and Joining the EU from outside is granted it the necessary powers, much more tricky. Croatia was the Madrid takes a different approach last member to get in and the – essentially sticking its political entire process took 10 years. fingers in its ears and ignorThe signals from Brussels ing the clamour from Barare mixed. Outgoing celona where Catalans European Commission are to hold their own chief Manuel Barroso r e f e r e n d um in said it would be November anyway. “extremely difficult,

Similarly Cyprus, Join the debate at the if not impossible” Belgium and RomaIndependence on Trial for Scotland to get nia have their own section of our website: back in and, in a letissues with separawww.sundaypost. ter to a House of tists. com Lords committee, said

The Foreign Affairs Scotland would have to Committee at Westminster apply to join “according to noted the Scottish referendum the rules”. caused “unease” in a number of Incoming EC boss Jean Claude EU capitals. Juncker has said he will “respect

The UK Government says the the outcome” of the September 18 Article 48 route is “utterly implaupoll, but in a meeting with MEPs sible”. last week he reportedly added

They argue that should Scotland more ominously: “One does not become a member by writing a letter.”

The disagreement over Scotland’s route into the EU matters because if it did take the Article 49 route that would almost certainly leave Scotland outside the EU for a time. No matter how short, that would be disastrous given Scotland sells £ 11 billion worth of exports, currently without any barriers to that trade.

EU structural funds, of which Scotland has recently received more than its fair share, would dry up and farming subsidies would be suspended.

The Scottish Affairs Committee calculated that falling out of the EU would cost Scots as much as £1,300 per household.

Only once a route in was agreed could negotiations over terms begin.

Britain, due to its sheer size, has got away with all manner of rulebending down the decades.

If the UK wants an opt- out, the