EU's Reactions to Secessionist Attempts in EU Member-States: Comparing the Cases of Catalonia and Scotland

Recent years have witnessed to the growth of secessionist movements/parties, which pursue the objective of ‘independence in Europe’. They want their region to gain full independence from the member state to which it currently belongs and, at the same time (or immediately after), to become a new member-state of the EU. However, recent experiences in Scotland and Catalonia, beyond restating the difficulty of achieving the first step of the project (i.e. gaining independence from the ‘host state’), also raised serious issues about the second step (i.e. becoming a new EU member-state): Would EU institutions accept a new member-state that is a splinter from another member-state? Do EU institutions have a settled/principled view on this question or are they likely to change their stance depending on which specific case is presented? Are there important divisions amongst EU institutions, particularly between intergovernmental and supranational ones? Are there important divisions within the major EU institutions? These questions are not purely academic, as popular support for independence is affected by the likelihood of the region getting access into the EU in the post-independence scenario. The paper presents the findings of a research based on documents and elite interviews conducted with members of EU institutions. These findings show that EU institutions tend to discourage secessionist attempts in EU member-states independently of the specific case. However, attitudes within EU institutions can considerably change when, like in the case of Scotland, the region to become independent/new member-state belongs to a leaving or former member-state.