Europeanization and Secession: The Cases of Catalonia and Scotland

In this article, I examine and compare discourses and strategies mobilized by pro- and anti-independence movements in the UK and in Spain in order to examine how the EU as an actor or as a political institutional context affects contemporary secessionist politics within member states. I argue that the EU provides a complex web of opportunities and constraints for pro- and anti-independence movements in the UK. The EU is both an arena for articulating claims and a source of allies, while appeals to images, histories and experiences of the EU and other European states can be mobilized discursively in reasoning for or against secession. I also argue that, overall, the EU appears to have provided more opportunities than constraints for anti-independence activists. In an indication of the relevance of Europe in contemporary secession debates, the article shows that arguments and beliefs about Europe were actively employed by activists to justify or criticize the premises underpinning reasons to support or reject secession, although more research is needed to determine whether these arguments about Europe resonated with voting publics in Scotland and Catalonia.