In the recent years, we could observe that movements for self-government in Europe (Catalonia and Scotland) have increasingly placed their demands in a broader European rather than a pure state context. One of the explanations has been that the EU with its high degree of economic integration has lowered the threshold and costs of independence (Alesina & Spolaore 2003, Colomer 2007). In most EU states, this supranational economic framework (free movement of goods, capital, services, and people in the Single Market) has replaced the national framework, and the sub-state units automatically benefit from participating in it. At the same time, we find some backward movements. BREXIT - the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU – has introduced a big question mark behind the endurance and borders of the Single Market and its four freedoms.

The LIQUID-EU project aims at analyzing this new political scenario, investigating above all the determinants of the success or failure of national sovereignty and self-determination in the EU. We ask the question: Under which conditions do the economic integration offer a chance for the sovereignty and self-determination claims of the sub-state units?