Dennis Hollingsworth

Regional Nation State-lets

I've just talked to Stephanie, who is traveling through the EU on a lighting fast shopping expedition (work related). She's in Baqrcelona for a night and she reports that the big news is the hubub of Catalans agitating in the street:

The issue that is convulsing this nation of 44 million is a proposal by the legislature of semiautonomous Catalonia, the wealthy northeastern area centered around Barcelona, to gain an even broader degree of self-rule. Spain's Socialist government has agreed in principle. The battle is over where to set limits.

At a broader level, Catalonia's campaign is being watched by the European Union, where the idea of devolved regional power is viewed as a means of fostering local identity in a one-size-fits-all superstate of 25 nations.

Those watching most keenly are the other Spanish regions, particularly the violence-prone Basque country, which is already the most autonomous of Spain's 17 regions and is pressing for even more rights.

Conservatives led by the opposition Popular Party fear a domino effect: Today the Basques, tomorrow Catalonia, and then Valencia, Andalusia, Galicia and the Canary Islands ? all in various stages of overhauling their own regional constitutions.

Says Jorge Fernandez, a conservative Catalan lawmaker: "With a statute like the one passed by the Catalan parliament, the Spanish state as we know it will disappear."

Further down in the article, are stories of generals palming their pistol grips. It's interesting (perhaps in the manner of the legendary Chinese curse) that the identitiy of the natioin state in the EU is dissolving into regional nation state-lets. I'm sure there are people in other countries that are watching with interest (the Kurds, Tootsies and Pashtuns, among a multitude of others).

And further down still:

Both Catalonia and the Basque region say change is natural and is happening elsewhere in Europe. Britain has given Scotland its own parliament, France has offered the Mediterranean island of Corsica autonomy, and Italy's parliament reformed the constitution last year to shift health, education and policing authority from Rome to regional authorities.

The EU's Committee of the Regions, set up to give local and regional authorities a say over the laws the bloc passes, is "very much for" decentralization and is watching the Catalan drama with interest, says committee spokesman Dennis Abbott at EU headquarters in Brussels.

Posted by Dennis at February 18, 2006 8:36 PM