European Institute

Spatial justice and regional calls for devolution and/or independence in a ‘European Union of the Regions’.

Several member states of the European Union have, in recent months, been faced with a strengthening of claims for territorial independence, or for more devolution, from one of their constituent regional units with a strong regional ‘identity’: Scotland in the United Kingdom, Catalonia in Spain, and Flanders in Belgium are the most notable examples. Such claims are not new and have a long political history in these three countries. What seems to be new is their intensification in a context of economic crisis of the nation-state and of the EU, leading particular regions to contest the current model of fiscal redistribution in place at the national level and demand that structural changes be implemented in order to gain the ‘true’ means to steer and finance their own regional development.

This research is supported by UCL European Institute's call for proposals 2012-13

• Project Summary - Spatial Analysis