The European Union’s Response to the Catalan Secessionist Process

Article 4.2 TEU enshrines the EU’s respect for the exclusive right of each Member State to ensure its territorial integrity. No EU Member State allows referendums for part of the population to decide on the national territory. The Commission and European Council have recognized that the effect of a secession in a Member State is to leave the new state outside the EU. Whether or not European citizenship is retained is a matter not of European but national law, as European citizenship is an automatic complement to the nationality of a Member State. The position of the Commission and the European Council regarding the Catalan authorities’ illegal referendum and declaration of independence was to support the constitutional mechanism for intervention authorized by the Spanish Senate. Nationalisms erode the integration process by weakening the cohesion of states and undermining the equality of their citizens.