Nicola Sturgeon in Brussels to discuss options for Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon and Jean-Claude Juncker - credit European Commission

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is in Brussels today to meet with European leaders as she begins her attempts to protect Scotland's place in the EU.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker's office confirmed Scotland's First Minister is to meet him today, after she has sat down with European Parliament president Martin Schulz.

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas confirmed the pair will meet at 5pm this afternoon.

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She is also expected to meet with other members of the European Parliament, including former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, now president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, after he tweeted: "It's wrong that Scotland might be taken out of EU, when it voted to stay. Happy to discuss with Nicola Sturgeon next time she's in Bruxelles."

SNP MEP Alyn Smith, who yesterday received a standing ovation from MEPs after a short speech pleading for solidarity with Scotland, told the BBC this morning there was goodwill twoards Scotland at the European Parliament. 

"Brussels is good at finding solutions to complex questions where there is a political will and goodwill to do so, and hopefully I demonstrated yesterday that there is a lot of goodwill for Scotland right now," he told Good Morning Scotland.

However Donald Tusk, president of the European council, which represents the member states, declined to meet Sturgeon, arguing a meeting would be “not appropriate” given the “situation in the UK”.​

In a statement yesterday to MSPs, Sturgeon said the Scottish Government had already met with the ambassadors of Slovakia, Germany and France.

MSPs voted by 92 votes to 0 to back Sturgeon's attempts to explore options for Scotland in the wake of the EU referendum result, in which the UK voted to leave the EU, but support for Remain won in Scotland by 62 per cent. 

The Scottish Conservatives abstained, warning Sturgeon not to use the situation to engineer another referendum on Scottish independence. 

"We need to see Nicola Sturgeon at the heart of discussions in London, not on a busman’s tour of European capitals," said deputy leader Jackson Carlaw.