Resumen de Accession from the inside: Cofoe and the strong pleas of self-determination movements: the role of secessionist parties in the Conference

Thibaut Le Forsonney

• This article considers the role of secessionist parties at the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). The formation of the Self-Determination Caucus by nine MEPs raises several questions for the Conference’s proposals to bridge the gap between institutions and citizens. The article offers a brief discussion of the literature on the principle of self-determination movements, in principle and policy. It then gives an overview of the relevant parties at the conference, including their relations with one another, the strategies available to them and the objectives they choose to pursue. This allows for trends to be identified and typologies to be used to sort the players. The article shows that self-determination movements do not engage uniformly across the EU’s institutions. This leads to an exploration of the other actor’s choices when responding to the Caucus. The article then considers the influence that this debate on self-determination has on the Conference, in the short term, and for the EU’s core values in the long term.