Exactly. So the fewer nation states the better. The EU can't exercise any control over "independent regions." That's just waffle. The EU philosophy, as you are so keen to remind us, is for ever-closer integration. Fracturing of states works directly against that. This is from wiki, an extract concerning what might have happened had Scotland voted for independence. When you read it bear in mind that Scotland is pro-EU and that the EU is pro-Scotland, yet EU politics might have made it impossible for an independent Scotland to join. It would clearly be no easier for an independent Catalonia. Too many regions are watching with interest to see what happens here and too many nation states are extremely wary of separatist groups being encouraged by an easy ride for Catalonia or Scotland. It may be wrong but it's the real world.

The No Campaign (Better Together), led by Alistair Darling, argued that any vote for independence would have automatically placed Scotland out of the EU as a new state, and Scotland would have had to renegotiate entry.There is no clear legal process for how this exit for Scotland would have been enacted. Comments by several EU officials and other heads of EU member states echoed the No Campaign view, and in mid-February 2014 Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, stated that it would have been 'very difficult' for an independent Scotland to join the EU, 'if not impossible', because of the difficulty of getting the approval of all member states, particularly Spain, which fears a possible secession of Catalonia and has blocked Kosovo's accession to the EU. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, said in November 2013 that after a vote for independence, Scotland "will be left outside the EU", while Spanish Foreign Minister Jos? Garcia-Margallo, having said in February 2012 that Spain would not veto Scottish accession to the EU, provided Scottish independence had UK agreement (thus making it different from Catalan independence), added in early February 2014 that an independent Scotland would have had many hurdles to overcome in a lengthy process of negotiations and ratifications if it was to become an EU member.