Catalania as a State in the E.U.

When Catalania held a referendum on whether to break off from the E.U. state of Spain, the E.U.’s basic law was silent on whether a state’s region would be a new state. The Prodi Doctrine, however, states that a region seceding from a state is automatically no longer part of the European Union. Such a region would have to apply for statehood as if it had been outside of the Union. I submit that such a stance is problematic.

Firstly, “using the euro as a Catalan currency could prove problematic.”[1] Disentangling the region more generally from the Union economically would face formidable challenges. The free movement of workers, for instance, would no longer be possible.

Secondly, to become a state, Catalania would face the unfair hurdle of needing the ok of every extant state, meaning that formerly Spanish region would need the permission of the Spanish government. The latter would likely exploit the conflict of interest that would be involved. Generally speaking, a party to a secession dispute should not be able to veto statehood for a former region of the state. Considering how many states were in the E.U. at the time of Catalania’s referendum on Catexit, the federal requirement that every extant state approve any proposed statehood is problematic. More generally, giving every state a veto even on a matter of basic (i.e., constitutional law) hampers the interests of the federal level of governance. I submit, therefore, that a two-thirds majority is a more viable (and fairer) requirement for the role of the states in cases of proposed states. Spain and other states friendly to the state would not so easily exclude Catalan out of resentment or political vengeance at the expense of the E.U.

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[i] Damian Grammaticas, “Could the EU Throw Out an Independent Catalonia?” BBC.com, October 9, 2017.

On conflicts of interest in government (and business), see: Institutional Conflicts of Interest.

Spain’s Government: Measuring the Will of the People

“’No government in the world’ could tolerate the threatening of its unity,” said Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister of the E.U. state of Spain after a week of protests pro and con on whether the region of Catalonia should secede from the state.[1] On October 1, 2017, the region had held a referendum on the question in spite of the efforts of the state police to stop the vote. Ninety percent of the 40% of the region’s residents voted in favor of breaking off from Spain, but the active presence of the police means that the results could not be taken as an accurate reading of what the population of Catalan wanted.

I contend that the state government should have permitted the referendum because democracy itself depends on a people’s self-determination. In intimidating the vote, the state government inhibited a result that could be taken as the people’s will. The respective sizes of the political protests could not be taken as indicative; neither could pronouncements by Catalan or state officials either way. Sergi Miquel, a Catalan lawmaker, insisted that the turnout would have been much higher had the police not acted violently against potential and actual voters, but we cannot surmise how that turnout would have voted. He had an interest in portraying the averted turnout as pro-secession, while the state’s prime minister had an interest in portraying the Catalan people as pro-Spain. Only a fair and open referendum could have revealed what the region’s people wanted, and democracy itself prizes the will of the people even above a government’s political and territorial interests.

That Spain is an E.U. state mitigated what was on the line (i.e., the significance of secession), assuming that Catalan would be a state too. Generally speaking, being part of the same federal system would mean that Catalan and Spain would be part of the same political system and thus have some laws and regulations in common. One of the prime benefits of federalism is that such commonality coexists with differences that reflect different cultures and self-identifications of peoples. People in Texas are both Texans and Americans. So too, Catalan people would be both Catalans and Europeans; Spaniards are of course Europeans as well. In other words, both Catalans and Spaniards would be E.U. citizens even if the region were to secede and become an E.U. state, and this track would mitigate the significance of secession. It follows that the state’s drastic efforts to violently curtail the referendum can be seen as excessive, as well as being at the expense of democracy. It may be that government officials generally are inclined to lose perspective and resort to force because they can. I submit that force in a democracy should be a last resort, especially when the use interferes with taking the measure of the will of the people.

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[1] Patrick Kingsley and Jason Horowitz, “Amid Catalan Crisis, Thousands Hold Rallies in Madrid and Barcelona,” The New York Times, October 7, 2017.

See also: Essays on the E.U. Political Economy