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Kirsty Hughes, former director of the Scottish Centre on Europe Relations (SCER), said there would be a “complete openness” from the EU about letting an independent Scotland join the bloc. But she warned the EU would be “very reluctant” to let the UK rejoin the bloc again following its momentous departure.

Speaking at an event organised by the European Movement in Scotland, she said: “On the Scottish side I think there is complete openness if Scotland was to vote Yes in a constitutionally and legally valid referendum.

“There is complete openness to welcoming another small, northern European country into the European Union.”

She said Scotland’s “politics looks more normal at the moment” and the EU would see the nation as pro-European because the majority of Scots backed Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Ms Hughes added: ”I think the EU would be very reluctant in the near future to welcome a penitent UK back.

“It would have to be more than penitent, it would have to be one that had clearly worked through all its political, democratic, constitutional problems and come out the other side of that.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stepped up her campaign to drag Scotland out of the Union when Britons voted to unshackle from the Brussels bloc in a Brexit referendum in June 2016.

The SNP has insisted Scotland is on course for a second independence referendum when the UK leaves the bloc.

Ms Sturgeon said the move would allow Scotland to leave the UK and rejoin the EU on its own.

The SNP leader believes Scots are being “dragged” out of the bloc against their will.

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In its white paper on independence, the SNP government said Scotland would look to gain membership through Article 48 of the treaty of the EU.

If the country left the UK, it would theoretically be free to join the bloc.

Ms Sturgeon’s paper has argued that Scotland could join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA) as a means of gaining full access to the single market if the UK sponsored it.

Scotland meets the EU’s membership requirements and could be ushered through the normal application process quickly, according to experts on the issue.

Drew Scott, a professor at Edinburgh Law School, previously said: “The mood in Brussels today is quite different from the mood in Brussels in 2014 before the independence referendum.”

“I think Scotland could take its place relatively comfortably, relatively quickly providing we’re prepared to accept the obligations of membership and assuming we had achieved independence by a constitutional due process.”

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