AN INDEPENDENT Scotland could join the European Union in “two to five years,” SNP minister Angus Roberston claimed today.

The Constitution Secretary was speaking as he launched the SNP-Green government’s paper Building a New Scotland: An Independent Scotland in the EU at Queen Margaret University, alongside party colleague and Europe Minister Christina McKelvie.

The paper is the seventh in a series, drafted by top civil servants under the direction of Scottish ministers, which speculate on the future actions of the imagined government of a state which does not exist — and, in this case, also the attitude of the EU towards that state.