CENTRIFUGAL PROCESSES IN THE UK AND SPAIN IN THE CONTEXT OF BREXIT

The UK referendum on the exit from the European Union resulted in the victory of the so-called “Euroskeptics” and the country faced a problem of choice of the relations model with the EU and other countries. At the referendum the state divided in two almost equal parts according on an area basis. Scotland and the Northern Ireland spoke out in favor of maintenance of membership in the UE, while the other half of the country, videlicet England and Wales, expressed an opposite position on the subject. Now Scotland is considering the opportunities of leaving the United Kingdom to reunite with the EU as an independent state. At Scottish referendum of 2014 just 44.7% of the region population voted for the secession. However, now it is expected that as the position of the UK at the international stage has changed and its economic situation is deteriorating the result of a new referendum will be different. In that way Scotland can create an important precedent for other regions with prevailing recessionist sentiments, i.e. Catalonia. Catalonia is now closely monitoring what will happen to the UK after Brexit and whether Scotland will achieve secession and join the EU. In the article the author reviews the perspectives of Scottish and Catalonian independency and gives special attention to the analysis of the possibility of the entry of the mentioned regions into the European Union as independent states.

Brexit, UK, Scotland, Catalonia, European Union, Brexit, autonomy referendum, secession, national problem, independence

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