Is he correct, though?

I don't think he is. Sure it would be a hassle, but calling it a world of pain seems to be an exaggeration, let alone calling it impossible.

Perhaps he is suggesting that countries like Spain and Hungary would never agree to let a breakaway country join the EU, due to the precedent it would set for their own countries.

Romania, rather.

Or Holland, for that matter, where there's no fear of the country similarly disintegrating, but we're not eager to have *another* player at the table either I think, *especially* if we had a perfectly good relationship with the single player that would then split in two.

Indeed, if one pays no attention to their supporting Balkan separatism and accession, including Croatia last year.

Yeah, because that's a totally comparable situation to the separation of Scotland from the UK.

You're right. It isn't. Scotland would meet the criteria for EU accession. Croatia doesn't come close.

One reason to allow for Balkan country accession to the EU - IIRC - was that it was an unstable reason and the EU could export stability there. We all know how the Balkans can... you know... magically screw up the entire western hemisphere when something goes wrong there :S

*unstable region.

To be fair to the Balkans the western hemisphere generally has to lay down a lot of screwie foundations for them to push things over.

As much as I hate the idea of Scotland leaving the UK, I dislike the way this part of it is going. The SNP's view that once a citizen of the EU you should stay a citizen of the EU unless you choose to leave it... that seems to me to be the way it should be. The idea that Spain et al can essentially throw the Scots out of Europe because of their own nervousness about breakaway regions seems fundamentally wrong.

On the other hand, the world has never been a fair place.

That statement is quite comical in lieu of the EU's role in exporting instability to the Balkans to begin with.

They're not throwing them out, they're not letting them in (theoretically anyway, I really have no idea what Spain's position on Scotland is).

It would be throwing them out. Unless they don't let Scotland into the EU but allow Scots to keep their status as EU citizens. I have to admit the prospect of a non EU nation full of pro-European EU citizens whose only neighbour is an EU nation full of people who don't want to be in the EU is quite delicious.

Poor Scotland has really gotten hosed by Little Englanders.

I have to agree with Putin here on the not letting them in. Why, again, should my prime minister have to talk to one more representative with one more veto that could undermine the stability of the EU further?

I have no idea what you mean.

(Fun fact, if Scotland does leave the UK I will be a Scot)

As an Englishman I'm all in favor in Scotland voting for independence, then hopefully Wales will follow suit. This is nothing against those two nations, but the current situation with them getting increasingly more power (rightly), but trying to hang on to England's coattails is getting ridiculous, especially with Scottish & Welsh MP's able to vote in parliament on issues which only effect England.

It would also help England regain it's identity which has been crushed under the British , I'm English not British and the sooner the Union Jack is rendered obsolete the better, the British hate us, the English need to wake up to that fact.

The concept of Scotland being a successor state to the UK is frankly bizarre, so I don't get how they'd be kicked out as they're simply a new state. The whole situation is sui generis.

Well, take another example, how would we want to split up the seats in the European Parliament? This Parliament is rightly skewed towards smaller countries. (A vote cast in Malta is amplified about ten times with respect to a vote cast in Germany.) Inevitably, given that one larger country splits into two smaller in the case of a UK-Scotland split, their total number of seats will exceed their current number of joint seats. This inevitably leads to a loss of Dutch power in the EP. Why would I accept that?

Scotland leaving would erode whatever remaining support for staying in the EU that exists in the rump UK, accelerating the UK's departure. This would mean that the UK's seats would be given up in the EP, thus increasing Dutch 'power', and you'd also be gaining a cooperative member (Scotland) while losing an obstructionist one (UK).

Tempting, but no.

Well anyway, the Dutch stopped being a team player a long time ago. They've become the most insular and parochial-minded country in the EU.

Really? I find the Dutch to be some of the most level headed of EU members and firm members of the axis of common sense that keeps the EU from doing things too absurd, self defeating, or French

Nothing proves insularity like having those who are reflexively hostile to the EU admire you for 'level-headedness'.

I am pro-EU, Putin. I have been for many years. There are many, many aspects of it that I don't like, but on the whole it is a good thing.

Brilliant, Oct, +1.
So I made a plot with Excel of number of representatives in the EP and population, turns out there's not at all a logical pattern. By my analysis, even taking into account that small nations should have a somewhat stronger say than large ones, I find the following countries to be somewhat overrepresented:
Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania
and the following countries somewhat underrepresented:
France, the UK, Spain, Luxemburg.

(And the Netherlands tend slightly to underrepresentation, but only marginally so.)

No wait, I've gotta look at that again

Replace Sweden with Rumania.