Professor Richard Gillespie from the Department of Politics appeared before Committee on Self-Government of the Basque Parliament in Vitoria to provide Basque MPs with an analysis of the UK experience of last year’s Scottish referendum.
Professor Gillespie then responded to questions from the Committee about the significance of the event for Basque and Catalan aspirations to greater autonomy or independence.
He said: “Basque politicians were mostly very impressed by the way David Cameron had authorised a binding referendum on Scottish independence. Spanish governments have been rejecting Catalan claims for a ‘right to decide’ their future relationship with Spain.
“I advised them not to invest hope in support from the UK government for their own claims to such rights. Cameron’s policy had been based on the specific historical relationship with Scotland and political calculations about the outcome; he did not invoke a general principle that might be applied elsewhere in Europe.
“I did criticize the hurried improvisation involved in policy towards Scotland. Its still unclear what this means for the UK as whole”.
Former Basque prime minister, Juan José Ibarretxe, who delivered a keynote address at the University of Liverpool in March 2015, followed Professor Gillespie’s appearance and made reference to his visit to the University last month.
The session was streamed live through the website of the Basque Parliament and video coverage is available at: http://www.parlamento.euskadi.net/c_ponencia_autogobierno.html