""You cannot have both?" I didn't say anything contradictory in those two quotes."

Oh yes you most certainly did Shaw:

1: The EU pitches Catalonia out of the EU

2: The EU penalises Catalonia for leaving the EU

Now the EU can hardly penalise Catalonia for actions taken by the EU can it?

So no Shaw Catalonia, should it vote for independence will find itself out of the EU, just exactly the same as Scotland would have found itself out of the EU had it voted for independence. Now Catalonia is one step further down the road than Scotland in that it currently uses the Euro. There is nothing at all to prevent Catalonia from continuing to use that currency. Catalonia is the richest province in Spain, certainly the most industrialised. It is fully compliant and could be fast tracked for consideration. In either event it will be about 10 years for Catalonia and 15 years for Scotland - now whether or not the EU will still exist in 10 to 15 years is one thing, whether, IF it does still exist, it is a group anyone would wish to join is another story entirely.

I would imagine that by that time the two-thirds thing is a done deal and the unanimous vote has been canned as those are the wishes of the EU Commission, so there would be no veto for Spain which by then may have fractured even further.