The European Union and Regional Separatism

The separatist temptations observed in a number of European countries are not without their impact on the European Union and its organization. As Jean-François Drevet shows here by way of three examples –Belgian Flanders, Scotland and Catalonia– EU membership may play a very variable role in the negotiation of a possible separation and, subsequently, of the modalities governing the relations to the Union of the two separate entities so formed. This column presents the situation of each of these separatist regions within the member states of which they are part (Belgium, United Kingdom and Spain). It then highlights the institutional difficulties that would be engendered by an actual separation, which would lead to an increase in the number of small states in the Union, involving a degree of representation in decision-making bodies that would be much greater than their demographic size.