Politics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in governments, policies, and political processes. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Catalonia is a region of Spain where a big part of the population wants to be independent from Spain and form its own nation. If that happens, at the beginning, Catalonia as a nation will be out of the EU.
Could Catalonia quickly join the EU after that?
Can Catalonia alone fulfil the requirements?
Is there a minimum period of time Catalonia must wait? Or does it depend only on economical and political factors?
To be allowed to apply to join the EU, Catalonia as an independent nation must be able to demonstrate they meet the Copenhagen Criteria which are defined as follows
Political criteria:
Stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
Economic criteria:
A functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competition and market forces;
Judicial criteria:
Administrative and institutional capacity to effectively implement the acquis and ability to take on the obligations of membership
Once they demonstrate they can meet all these criteria they enter into a series of negotiations with the European Union, which can take several years judging by past standards. It is worth noting this may be pushed back several years, as the EU are currently strung up with some of the "most complicated negotiations of all time", regarding Britain imminent withdrawal from the EU.
Once they have finished negotiations with the EU and demonstrate they can comply with all the EU's standards and rules
They must then seek
The consent of the EU institutions and EU member states
The consent of their citizens – as expressed through approval in their national parliament or by referendum
It is worth noting that for Catalonia to be allowed to become a member state they must have unanimous consent from all EU member states. Traditionally EU member states would be unlikely to support such a move if it risks antagonising Spain, who may also potentially block such a move.
Two years ago I read a thesis written by a law graduate in Catalonia, which dealt with these questions.
There are three legal theories on this:
Spain continues to exist as a state, while Catalonia is a new state. In this case Catalonia would not inherit any of the treaties that Spain has signed, but would start with a clean slate. That would mean Catalonia would initially lose its EU membership and need to reapply. Among others, this requires unanimous approval by all present members—which might get blocked by Spain as well as by a few other member states who are afraid of secession movements within their own borders.
Both Catalonia and the remainder of Spain are considered successors of the current Spanish state, and would thus both inherit the treaties which Spain has signed up until that point. That would make both Catalonia and Spain EU members from Day One—in fact both might be considered to have been members before.
The current state of Spain ceases to exist, and both Catalonia and Spain without Catalonia are considered new states. In this case, both would have to re-negotiate any previous international treaties, which would mean they would both drop out of the EU.
There are precedents for each of these, but none involving the EU. The EU’s stance currently seems to be that they would treat it as #1. Some member states (those who see a risk of themselves losing territories to an independence movement) would likely favor #1, while those who regained their independence in the last few decades (the Baltic and ex-Yugoslavian states) might hold different views.
Joining the EU requires a unanimous vote by the members. Spain is never going to vote for Catalonia. And neither is France, lest the Basques get any funny ideas. For the same reason, neither Spain nor France would allow Scotland to join.
If Catalonia gets its independence, Northern Catalonia will want to join in for sure Almost certainly not. It's not called "Northern Catalonia" - it's called "Rousillon" and their only common point with Catalogna is the Catalan language, which is still hardly used anymore in Rousillon - French with a Catalan accent has largely replaced it since the last 100 years
Catalonia would not gain admittance to the EU for many of the reasons stated already.
However the situation is not quiet comparable to that of Scotland. If Scotland were to coincide the timing of their independence with that of the rest of the UK leaving the EU then in that case Catalonia would be in a position similar to that of the UK and Scotland to that of Spain!! In effect the UK would be declaring their independence from the original EU member state i.e. the UK which contained Scotland!
I think the question is badly raised. The question is not how Catalonia joins EU, but if it is possible to EXPEL Catalonia, as Catalonia as a part of Spain is now is a part of the EU (including EU citizenship). So there are different possibilities:
Catalonia makes a declaration of independence but is not recognized by Spain. Thus, at this moment Catalonia would be part of EU despite the political tension and despite the acts of sovereignty of Catalonia and despite the police and legal repression of the Spanish state over the Catalans.
Spain recognizes the situation. At this moment the question of if Catalonia should be part of EU appears. But NOW is part of EU. It should be first expelled? First, large and unclear legal considerations should be taken into account, which probably it took years. Second question: It would benefit someone expel Catalonia?:
If Catalonia wins his independence obtained in spite of the authoritarian opposition of Spain Government and by Democratic methods, and without violence, it would be a democratic lesson for the world and for Europe. Democracy should not scare us in any way, and the international laws of self-determination is mandatory.
There are regions in other countries in EU that could demand the same that Catalonia? May be, the History is dialectical and we must to accept political changes if democratic. But do not forget that may be other States do not have the same political blindness that Spain, which has practically not left more option to Catalonia than to fight for its independence. Despite that half of the actual States in Europe have become independents in the past, I do not foresee an epidemic of independence from other regions in EU. ....but Spain is a different question. If Catalonia becomes independent Spain will be disintegrated in several years. (by the way, this question was predicted by a history mathematician 80 years ago together with the URSS disintegration ).
The theories and options about what happens next if Catalonia gets independence seems to be mostly just theories. There is a video here that explains that according to EU regulation any region of a EU member country that decides to declare independence automatically also decides to leave EU. Then they have the option to apply for membership and follow the established procedures for that. The hardest thing will be to get Spain to vote with yes.
