The politics of unilateral secession in the European Union: the case of Catalonia

We analyse the politics of unilateral secession in the European Union (EU), focusing on the Catalan secessionist conflict. Building on a triangulation strategy, within which primary data are cross-checked through semi-structured expert interviews, we examine how the involved central state and secess...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Holesch, Adam, 1977-, Jordana, Jacint
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/49170
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/49170
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2021.1886979
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:European Union (EU)
Secession
Internal
Unilateral
Catalonia
Spain
Diplomacy
Independence
Descripción
Sumario:We analyse the politics of unilateral secession in the European Union (EU), focusing on the Catalan secessionist conflict. Building on a triangulation strategy, within which primary data are cross-checked through semi-structured expert interviews, we examine how the involved central state and secessionist sub-state actor fought for the support of the supranational party within the EU’s multilevel framework. We make two entrenched contributions. We find that the Spanish government succeeded in securing the status quo, not only because of its relations within the bigger European party groups and the benevolent support of EU member states, but also because of the secessionist-restraining nature of the EU. The EU switched from the position of non-intervention towards one of open support for the central state government, and as a result it has developed an informal framework which could deter future unilateral secession intentions.