Scotland could become the EU’s next great problem

It is generally acknowledged, even by diehard Remainers, that the European Union’s handling of Cameron’s attempted renegotiation of the UK’s membership, as well as the EU’s subsequent interventions leading up to the 2016 referendum, was mishandled. It turned out they only added fuel to the Eurosceptic fire by appearing more as a foreign power attempting to interfere in British affairs rather than as a club of which the UK was an equal member.

With Scottish independence seemingly the next constitutional tussle for the United Kingdom, with another referendum very possibly hovering into view, how should the EU be involved in this debate, if at all?

A newly independent Scotland would have huge implications for the EU. For a start, it would be a test of some members’ patience with their own secession issues, notably Spain’s Catalan problem but also to a lesser extent the Flemish independence movement, Moravia in the Czech Republic and Basque separatism on the French and Spanish border (to name just a small handful).