The European Commission rolled out the red carpet for Scotland's first minister on Wednesday, hours after outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron told an EU summit his country would be leaving the European Union following last week's referendum.
A spokeswoman for the EU executive said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker would meet First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the late afternoon after Britain's 27 partners meet without the UK to discuss how to respond to a Brexit.
They
are expected to launch a period of reflection, culminating in a set of
EU reform proposals to be unveiled by March of next year, the 60th
anniversary of the founding Rome Treaty. Leaders have said the focus
will be on getting a grip on migration, bolstering security and creating
jobs and growth.
"It's important to have this meeting of 27 because it will show the unity of the 27," said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, describing the British vote as a wake-up call for Europe.
Sturgeon
has said Scotland, where more than 60 percent of voters said they
wanted to stay in the EU, does not want to be forced out of Europe by
England, the most populous component of the United Kingdom, which voted
to leave.
She has raised the prospect of the
Scottish parliament trying to block exit legislation, and alternatively
holding a new referendum on independence.
The
Scottish Nationalist premier was to meet European Parliament president
Martin Schulz first in Brussels to discuss the way forward. But the
president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits,
turned down her request for a meeting, his spokesman said.
Diplomats
said there was a risk that the high-profile welcome for Sturgeon, a day
after Cameron's last EU summit, could be seen in London as an
encouragement to secession, although EU officials denied any such
intention.
Cameron told European Union leaders on
Tuesday that Britain's future relations with the bloc could hinge on the
EU's willingness to rethink free movement of workers, which he blamed
for the referendum "no".
Juncker rebuffed that explanation for the vote, saying that successive British leaders had pa]rticipated in "Brussels bashing" and should not be surprised if their citizens believed them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel doused any hopes that Britain might yet reverse its decision, warning against "wishful thinking".
While she persuaded fellow leaders to give London more time to hand in
its formal notice to quit, Merkel said Britain could not drag out the
process endlessly and made clear that a new government would not be
allowed to "cherry-pick" the parts of EU membership benefits that it
liked.
"Some think that Britain needs more time. I hear this, yes, but I think it strange. It's a type of surrealism," said Belgium's Michel.
Cameron,
who announced his intention to resign after losing the referendum
partly due to concerns about immigration, told his last summit he hoped
his country would maintain as tight an economic and political
relationship as possible with the EU.
"Britain will be leaving the European Union but we will not be turning our back on Europe,"
he told a late night news conference after a dinner at which he said
many European partners voiced regret and friendship for Britain.
EU officials and diplomats said the mood was coolly polite.
The Conservative leader said he had reported with sadness on the outcome of the referendum, saying: "People
recognised the economic case for staying, but there was a very great
concern about movement of people and that was coupled with concern about
issues of sovereignty. I think we need to think about that, Europe
needs to think about that."
