First Minister Sturgeon vows to keep Scotland in EU

LONDON

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met EU officials in Brussels on Wednesday as Scotland faces the prospect of leaving the EU following the Brexit vote.

Sturgeon appeared before cameras after she made her case to EU officials on Wednesday evening and said she received a "sympathetic" response from EU officials.

"If there is a way for Scotland to stay, I am determined to try to find that way,” Sturgeon said.

Earlier in the day, Sturgeon said her meetings were aimed to make clear that “Scotland, unlike other parts of the United Kingdom, does not want to leave the European Union.”

After meeting with Sturgeon, EU Parliament President Martin Schulz said he had "listened carefully” and “learned a lot" from his meeting with the Scottish first minister.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker added: “Scotland has won the right to be heard in Brussels, so I will listen carefully to what the first minister will tell me," ahead of their meeting with the first minister.

Meanwhile, Spain and France have both expressed their opposition to negotiations with Scotland for a potential EU membership.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said, after an EU summit, that Scotland had “no legal competence to negotiate any potential entry” to the bloc while French President Hollande said that the negotiations would be conducted with the U.K. “not with a part of the United Kingdom."

Almost 52 percent of U.K. voters chose to leave the EU in Thursday’s referendum but Scotland voted by an even larger majority – 62 percent – to remain.

The Scottish government has expressed its desire "to enter into immediate discussion with the EU" to protect Scotland's place in the bloc.