This paper examines the impact of European integration on territorial restructuring in the EU. It applies Bartolini’s (2005) analytical framework which links structural conditions, resources, and demands for “exit” and “voice” at the regional level to a comparative study of processes of devolution, demands for regional autonomy, and separatism in interface regions, internal, and external peripheries across the EU. The paper addresses the following questions: How do separatist demands and claims to self rule vary relative to the combination of territorial and functional cleavages, and social identities in the context of EU regionalism? How does the scope of political representation and access to resources associated with European integration, and the economic and financial crisis affect the likelihood and intensity of separatism?
In order to examine the interplay of functional and territorial cleavages as a foundation of minority demands, the paper conducts a plausibility probe in a representative selection of case studies within the East-West distinction in European politics and the nature of minority demands as a result of institutional factors, cultural distinctiveness, and access to resources as a result of EU regional policies. Cases include “old” minorities and regions with specific claims to self rule and separatism in Western Europe (Scotland, Catalonia, South Tirol, Northern Ireland, and Flanders), regional concentrations of the ethnic minorities in East-Central Europe (Bulgaria, Romania,and Slovakia).
Following Bartolini (2005) the paper maps out the variety of exit options at the disposal of substate territories for revising their relationship with the state: interregional cooperation, demands for a larger share of state resources, and forms of separatism. Based on analysis and comparison, the paper finds that the variation in the intensity of territorial demands for “exit” is explained by the relative correspondence between cross-border cooperation, market homogenization, and the presence of territorial-regional institutions across the EU regions.
