Catalan independence as an 'internal affair'? Europeanization and secession after the 2017 Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Catalonia

The EU provides a complex web of opportunities and constraints for the Catalan independence movement. The EU was unwilling to support the Catalan unilateral declaration of independence and go against the wishes of the Spanish government; nevertheless, increased judicialization of the conflict weakened the argument that the Catalan independence crisis is an entirely ‘internal affair’ for the Spanish state. The evolution of supranational legal bodies has pluralized legal systems and created new opportunities for the Catalan independence movement to strengthen their position vis-à-vis the Spanish state. This chapter examines discourses and strategies mobilized in the Catalan independence campaign in order to assess how the EU as an actor or as a political institutional context affects contemporary secessionist politics within member states. More specifically, it examines the externalization strategies of the Catalan independence movement, the counteractions of the Spanish government abroad, and discursive ‘uses of Europe’.