The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is to meet this week with the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
El presidente de la Comisión Europea (CE), Jean-Claude Juncker, se reunirá el martes en Bruselas con la ministra principal de Escocia, Nicola Sturgeon, en un momento en el que el proceso de salida del Reino Unido de la #UE permanece estancado. https://t.co/Cv8b1XO1Ix #brexit pic.twitter.com/323MhDqmbt
— EuroEFE (@euroefe) June 8, 2019
The meeting, set for Tuesday, comes at a difficult time. On the one hand, the United Kingdom's exit process from the European Union is still up in the air. And on the other, the announcement of a second referendum in Scotland raises new questions.
Sturgeon announced in April in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh that her government intended to hold a second referendum on independence. She said that it was important for it to be held "within the lifetime of this parliament," that is, by the spring of 2021.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says #IndyRef2 should happen before end of current parliament in 2021, saying it is "our route to avoiding the worst of the damage #Brexit will do"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 24, 2019
Updates: https://t.co/H2cy9hNLue pic.twitter.com/V84OBBbGfm
The justification of this time scale was tied up with the uncertainties of Brexit. Sturgeon explained that only by guaranteeing a vote on independence in the current legislature would Scots know they had a clear option to avoid the worst effects of Brexit, whatever the final relationship between Britain and the EU might be.
Scotland voted to remain within the EU by 62 percent to 38 percent in the 2016 Brexit vote.