Leaving the EU could lead to the break up of the UK, former Foreign Secretary Lord Hague has warned.
He also said that any "Brexit" would weaken Europe at a time of political turbulence and volatility.
Writing in Wednesday's Daily Telegraph, Lord Hague makes clear he is unlikely to join former cabinet colleagues Liam Fox and Owen Patterson in calling for a "leave" vote at the EU referendum.
The prime minister has promised to hold an in/out vote before the end of 2017.
If the UK did vote to leave the EU, Lord Hague said he believed Scottish nationalists would "jump at the chance" to re-open the independence debate, and "the result of it could well be too close to call".
'Struggling organisation'
He also said a UK departure would see the 28-member bloc lose one of its "respected military powers" and leave it weakened.
"To end up destroying the UK and gravely weakening the European Union would not be a very clever day's work," he wrote.
"So, even as a long-standing critic of so much of that struggling organisation, I am unlikely in 2016 to vote to leave it," he said.
"We will have to ask, disliking so many aspects of it as we do, whether we really want to weaken it, and at the same time increase the chances, if the UK left the EU, of Scotland leaving the UK."
Analysis
By BBC political correspondent Iain Watson
When he was Conservative leader, William Hague fought the 2001 election campaign on a strong commitment to keep the pound, and keep out of the euro.
He has been seen as a Eurosceptic ever since.
But Lord Hague says a vote to withdraw would give the SNP the pretext to call second referendum on independence.
Those who want to leave the EU are likely to see this as a tacit admission that Prime Minister David Cameron's negotiations will produce little of substance and that alternative arguments are already being marshalled for continued UK membership.
On Monday former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine warned of a "civil war"in the Conservative Party if cabinet ministers were given a free vote in the EU referendum - meaning they could vote as they saw fit and were not whipped into toeing the party line.
He argued that a free vote would make Mr Cameron a global "laughing stock".
Meanwhile, Conservative Party vice-chairman Mark Field has also criticised calls for ministers to be given a free vote.
He told the Daily Telegraph that anyone who was not prepared to back Mr Cameron's re-negotiation should resign from the government.
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