Catalonia and European integration A regionalist strategy for nationalist objectives.

This thesis examines the strategy employed by the Catalan nationalist movement in the late 1980s and 1990s to secure a greater role for sub-national authorities in the process of European integration. It includes an analysis of the relationship of the Generalitat, the government of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, and particularly, Convergencia i Unio, the centre-right Catalan party in power since 1980, with the various actors and institutions central to the process of European integration. Thus, the Catalan nationalist movement has pursued a dual strategy to consolidate its participation in the process of European integration based on the one hand on a co-operative regionalist strategy and on the other, a bilateral nationalist strategy. A close examination of this dual strategy would suggest that there is a clear disenchantment among Catalan nationalists with the concept of "Europe of the Regions" and with the EU-wide efforts in the 1990s to secure a greater role for sub-national authorities.