The European Union and the challenge of ‘independence in Europe’: Straddling between (formal) neutrality and (actual) support for member-states’ territorial integrity

In the last decade, regionalist forces have been testing the limits of the EU multi-level system by making concrete bids to ‘Independence in Europe’. This article investigates the reaction of the EU institutions in the cases of Scotland and Catalonia. The analysis, based on archive research and elite interviews, points to a certain ambiguity in the behaviour of EU institutions, whereby a claimed neutrality is contradicted by declarations that clearly help the defence of member-states’ territorial integrity. This strategy is applied by all EU political institutions – intergovernmental and supranational alike – and to both analysed cases, independently of whether the independence process is considered legal (Scotland) or illegal (Catalonia). The implementation of this strategy is strengthened by party connections between member-states’ PMs and presidents of EU institutions.