Rethinking claims for independence in Europe: Secessionist party strategies in multi-level contexts

Secessionist parties campaign for the independence of a territory from an existing state as well as for international recognition of the prospective state by the international community. In Europe, these parties also seek to position the secessionist territory within the supranational structure of the EU. Previous studies have observed three ways in which secessionist parties link their claims for independence to the EU: secessionist parties can (1) expect that the EU facilitates secession from the host-state and will admit the secessionist territory as a new member state; (2) oppose the EU since it undermines their demands for secession; (3) portray independence claims and EU integration as complementary forces to reduce the relevance of statehood and sovereignty. Our paper nuances these findings and argues that secessionist parties’ demands vis-à-vis the EU are increasingly varied and pragmatic, reflecting both long-term and short-term strategic interests. We draw on the new FraTerr dataset to explore the European dimension of demands for secession across 9 European cases between 1990 and 2021. We argue that, in a period where European institutions have become more explicitly opposed to automatically accepting secessionist territories as new member-states, this has not led to increased euro-scepticism among secessionist parties. Whilst demands for independence have increasingly been directed away from the EU and towards the home state, secessionist parties nevertheless continue to engage constructively with the EU. Territorial claims increasingly focus on goals short of secession and on specific demands in particular policy areas that impact on territorial interests. The findings have important implications for conceptualizing secession in multi-level political settings.