Possible future states of Europe: Gateways or getaway states

The number of sovereign states has more than quadrupled since 1939. Meanwhile, there are about 50 small political units in the World in some form of dependency, and for that reason, possible candidates for new and small, independent states. Most of these units are not located in geopolitically sensitive areas, so their independence would not destabilise the geopolitical balance of their regions. Parallel to the proliferation of new states are processes of integration, mainly economic, and mainly in Europe. These processes have evolved parallel with the tendencies towards independence in some European Union (EU) member states, whose high democratic standards have been tested as calls for independence have become more vociferous, even resulting in separatist movements and rebellions. This paper examines the prospects of calls for independence within the EU, with Catalonia and Scotland as the most prominent examples, serving as tests for democratic institutions of both the EU and its member states.