16/02/2014 Reporting Scotland

two weeks' time. That

Are Good evening. The Scottish Government insists the country will

be still able to remain in the European Union, even if there's a

vote in favour of independence. It was responding to the President of

the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who said an application

from Scotland to join the European Union would need the approval of all

member states. Andrew Kerr reports. A lack of unity in the European

union could be a block to an independent Scotland's membership.

The president of the European commission has already said that

Scotland would not automatically be a new member. He seemed to go even

further today on the Andrew Marr show, talking about the possibility

of other states having a veto over a new membership. It is a new country.

I believe it is going to be a truly difficult, if not impossible, a new

member state coming out of another member country, getting agreement of

the others. That is for the British people and the Scottish people, of

course to decide about that. He made particular reference to the

Government of Spain, who have opposition to independence movements

in Catalonia and the bask country. His intervention was dismissed by

the Scottish Government. Jose Manuel Barroso was preposterous this

morning. He's compared the situation in Scotland to that of Kosovo.

Scotland has been an EU member for 40 years. But the comments from Jose

Manuel Barroso were music to the ears of those opposed to Scottish

independence. Of course it is an advantage to the EU to have members

within it, but what Jose Manuel Barroso was saying was that the

discussions that will take place will be anything but plain sailing.

They could drag on for years. As the president said, it is up to the

Scottish people to decide their future, but his comments are, as

ever, fuelling the debate, as Scots pour over what he said. -- pore

over. A 78-year-old cyclist has died after being involved in a collision

with a car on the outskirts of Edinburgh. It happened on the road

from Kirkliston to South Queensferry just before ten o'clock this

morning. At the Winter Olympics, David Murdoch's team lost their

penultimate match in the round robin stage of the curling, to Norway. The

defeat leaves team GB on five wins and three defeats, and facing a

crucial match against China tomorrow. The Scottish athletes

competing at the Sochi Olympics have had to contend with subtropical

temperatures. The weather there is unprecedented, and a number of

competitions have had to be brought forward to avoid the afternoon heat.

Jackie O'Brien reports. Sochi is scorching with temperatures over 14

Celsius in the mountains making it the warmest winter games on record.

Athletes did not bargain for the balmy temperatures reaching the

competition slopes. So what. It clouded over a bit summit was not as

sunny as it was earlier, but not used to skiing when it is 15

degrees. And the snow is so wet and sticky. Organisers have thousands of

tonnes of snow stop wild if a major flaw threats in, but the man who

came up with this most touring concept is confident that it will

not be required. Snow cannot melt in a second. Even in subtropical

temperatures, we are still mountains, and mountains at this

level, you have freezing temperatures, so don't worry about

the thaw. The temperatures are not going to pose a threat to the future

of Scotland's scheme industry, but the man in charge of snow storage

believes that his concept could work in our mountains. Well, what's the

weather going to be like here for the start of the week? Gillian has

the forecast. Good evening. It was blue skies for many, but the cloud

is creeping in, bringing outbreaks of rain, tracking novels. We have a

wintry mix with snow above 200 metres. Frosty conditions ahead of

that, with the risk of ice on untreated surfaces. Tomorrow, a

cloudy, damp prospect, as low pressure once again takes charge,

and that rain heads northwards. It is no longer mainly confined to the

hills, but we will see some at lower levels in Inverness and across the

Highlands. A cold day, quite misty towards the East Coast, with

temperatures around five or six Celsius at best. And that's all from

Reporting Scotland tonight. There are updates from 6.25am tomorrow

morning. From all Good evening. In the midst of any

normal winter weather for the week ahead would be fairly unremarkable.

Some rain in places, some strong winds at times, but of course we are

in the midst of no normal