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The Scottish Premier League was ranked 18th in UEFA's coefficient ranking for 2012, meaning that for the 2013–14 season, Scotland will have one less representative in European competitions. Only the SPL champions will qualify for the UEFA Champions League, entering at the second qualifying round, one round earlier than the previous season. The SPL runners-up, who had entered the third qualifying round for non-champions in the Champions League in the 2012-13 season, will start instead in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The winners of the Scottish Cup and third placed team also qualify for the Europa League, both starting one round earlier than in 2012-13, in the third and second qualifying rounds respectively.
Clubs also had the opportunity to apply for qualification to the UEFA Intertoto Cup before it was folded into the Europa League; qualification for that event was given to the highest placed applicant, although only two clubs chose to play in the tournament since the SPL's inception in 1998–99 (Dundee in 2001 and Hibernian in 2004, 2006 and 2008). Clubs may also qualify for Europe via the UEFA Fair Play ranking.
In the seasons after the SPL's inception, Scotland's UEFA co-efficient improved significantly, having been ranked 26th in 1998–99, they reached a high of 10th at the end of the 2007-08 season. Since then, the SPL ranking declined, with the league falling back to 24th position at the end of 2012-13. This means that for the 2014-15 season, the Scottish Cup winners and third placed SPL team will start one round earlier than the 2013-14 season, in the second qualifying round and first qualifying round of the Europa League respectively.
In 2003 Celtic became the first Scottish club since Dundee United in 1987 to reach a European final, eventually losing 3–2 to F.C. Porto after extra time in the UEFA Cup final. In 2003–04, two Scottish clubs (Celtic and Rangers) qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. In 2005–06, Rangers became the first Scottish club to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League, a feat which was repeated by Celtic the following two seasons. In the 2007–08 season, three Scottish clubs were competing in Europe after Christmas for the first time since 1970,[29] while in the same season Rangers reached the UEFA Cup final where they lost 2–0 to Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg. During the season Scotland's European representatives collected the most coefficient points since the 1982–83 season.
If the Scottish Cup winners have already qualified for the Champions League, the Europa League place is handed to the runners-up, and if the winners have already qualified for the Europa League, the Europa League place is given to the fourth placed SPL club. The same rule also applies if both the winners and the runners-up have already qualified. In 2010, as Dundee United had qualified for the Europa League through both winning the Scottish Cup and finishing third in the SPL, a Europa League place passed to Motherwell, who finished fifth in the SPL.
Until 1995, the winners of the Scottish League Cup were granted a place in the UEFA Cup, although this privilege was rarely invoked as the winning teams usually qualified for Europe by some other means such as winning the League Championship or Scottish Cup. The most recent example was Raith Rovers, who represented Scotland in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup after winning the League Cup the previous season as a First Division club. This privilege was discontinued due to the reduction in the number of European places granted to Scottish clubs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Premier_League#European_qualification