Sorry to disappoint you Stu but the Civil Service in the UK and in almost every Parliamentary democracy I know has NO Legislative initiative power - those powers are normally the sole preserve of the elected Government and Parliament. In other words Stu the absolute opposite of what happens in the EU.

No yes and no about it Alan Conn - to become an EU Commissioner you must comply with the following criteria:
1: You must proposed by your own National Government
2: You must have no other post, elected or unelected as this would compromise your duty to the EU Commission (Any other post would be viewed as a conflict of interest)

As the last three people proposed by the UK prove EU Commissioners need never have been elected to any position in their lives.

"there is no stated Spanish veto on Scottish membership of the EU. During the 2014 referendum a story broke in the UK media claiming that the Spanish would block Scottish membership, however the Spanish Foreign Minister clarified that because the referendum was a legal referendum they had no problem with it."

Of course there is no stated Spanish veto on Scottish Membership of the EU. Foreign Ministers of foreign governments generally do not jump their fences until they have to. There are however at least six European countries who I could see vetoing Scotland' application for EU membership. Naturally the Spanish Government would have no problem with a duly initiated Independence Referendum - it has nothing to do with them - what might subsequently happen however would.


"Likewise at the moment there is not any stated opposition in principle to Scottish membership."

Nor will there be until an independent Scotland applies for membership, even then they have no need to state it, they will simply exercise their veto without explanation when the application is considered.

According to Juncker's edict banning all discussion with anyone from the UK until after the UK has formally triggered Article 50 there can be no negotiations. There will also be no legal or binding referendum related to Scottish independence until after the UK has left the EU, because it requires an act by the Westminster Parliament for any such referendum to take place - they not the Scottish Parliament set the question to be asked, the timing and dictate who is eligible to vote.