"Europe needs reform and change, it's not perfect but our interests are best served within it and for us to be taken out against our will would be democratically indefensible," Dunsire said.
His comments came as Adam Ingram, an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament, issued a statement Sunday claiming Scots had more in common with "mainstream European opinion" than voters in England over the issue of EU membership.
Comparing recent surveys by polling companies Survation and YouGov – that found 57 percent of Scots would vote to remain within the EU if there was an "In/out" referendum on Europe – Ingram said in a statement Sunday that Scots' opinion on EU membership differed from that of the rest of the United Kingdom.
"The clear message from these polls is that while Scotland is in line with mainstream European opinion when it comes to EU membership, the rest of the UK seems determined to walk away from Europe," he said.
Ingram added that with UK authorities leaning more and more toward UK Independence Party's (UKIP) "anti-EU agenda", Scotland's opinion on the issue could be simply ignored.
All of Scotland's principal political parties – with the exception of UKIP, which secured a 10 percent share of the vote in European elections in May – back continued EU membership. But with polls showing 43 percent of Scots back an EU exit, some commentators believe the main pro-EU political parties in Scotland are out of step with a large proportion of the electorate.
Jim Sillars, a former SNP Deputy Leader, told Sputnik earlier that the SNP policy appeared "too pro-EU, with virtually no critique of the mess Brussels has made of the economy, nor any criticism of its Federal agenda".
Sillars said it was time for the party to turn to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), as an alternative move to continued EU membership.
United Kingdom's membership in the European Union has been an acute matter of debate for the country, with UK Prime Minister David Cameron promising to hold in/out referendum in 2017. Earlier in November, Jonathan Arnott, the UKIP general secretary, told Sputnik that the country was tired of being used as "an EU cash cow" in light of increasing contributions the UK is requested to make to the European Union.
