Brussels, Sep 19 (IANS): European Parliament President Martin Schulz Friday morning hailed as "a sound decision" Scotland's rejection of independence vote.

"The Scottish people have voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. First of all, I welcome that this vote took place within a democratically agreed process inside of the country," he said in a press release.

Schulz said he believed that in a time when sticking together has proven its worth in "meeting the challenges we are facing in all walks of life," the result of the Scotland referendum was "a sound decision", Xinhua reported.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka Friday morning said he was really happy about the outcome of the vote, and stressed that "it is not only good news for Scotland and Great Britain, but also for the entire European Union".

"If Britain fell apart, this would lead to a nationalist wave that would destabilise a number of European countries in the years to come," said Sobotka in the light of the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The Scottish independence referendum officially started early Thursday morning, with more than four million voters across Scotland going to the poll stations. The final overall result reported Friday morning showed that over 55 percent of the voters rejected independence.