Scotland and Catalonia represent two important separatist challenges to their respective nation-states, yet they are also both generally pro-European. How does this apparent contradiction work?

Throughout Europe there are various regions asking for ________ from the larger country to which they are tied. 2014 is an important year for the people of Catalonia and Scotland. A referendum on whether Scotland should be an independent country will take place on 18th September. In November 2012, _________ were held in Catalonia, where political parties in favour of separation held 60 per cent of votes. An unprecedented number of voters on the election was seen as a step towards the _________ of Catalonia. In October 2012, almost 1.5 million people took part in a _________ in Catalonia with the motto “Catalonia – the next ________ state in Europe”. Politicians in Catalonia demand the right to hold a ________ on independence from Spain. On 11th September last year, hundreds of thousands of Catalans held hands in a 400km human chain across their region to press the Spanish government to let them vote on ________ away and form their own country.

Why are these regional ________ demanding secession and gaining strength? Among Spanish regions, Catalonia is leader in global competitiveness and yet is damaged because of its ________ in the Spanish state. The fiscal plunder that the Spanish government imposes on Catalonia has risen to 10% of its GDP, amounting to?20 billion extracted in various taxes every year and never returned as ________ or social services. The main concern regarding the economy is that economic crisis has exacerbated local ________ over the fact that Catalonia transfers an estimated 8% to 9% of the region’s GDP to poorer regions of Spain. People of Catalonia tried to solve this problem through a new Statute of ________, but this has failed to solve any real problems.

Regarding social and political forces, one should mention the increasing ________ between Catalonia and Spain, suggested by a 2009 poll taken by the newspaper El Mundo asking readers if they felt hatredagainst the Catalans. The result was that 56% said yes. One of the key factors driving Catalans to ask for secession is a claim of ________. Support for Catalan independence is based on the thesis, going back to the 19th Century, that Catalonia is a nation having its ________ language, culture, traditions and history.

In case of Scotland, many Scots argue that they would be better off as an independent state because of the region’s access to North Sea oil. Currently, about 90% of all British fossil-fuel extraction takes place in or around Scotland. Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister and a leading _______, once told Scottish voters that North Sea fossil fuels could provide £300,000 of wealth for every citizen of Scotland. Besides economics, Scotland also has a distinctive cultural tradition within the United Kingdom. As Rabbi Siegel points out, “Language is not an issue” in Scottish nationalism, adding that Scottish nationalism is not an attempt at anti-English nationalism but a ________. This is exemplified in the fact that Scottish nationalists claim they want to keep the British pound sterling, but want greater fiscal autonomy.

In Spain, the national government’s refusal to acknowledge Catalonia’s right to hold a referendum has exacerbated tensions between Madrid and Barcelona and strengthened the popularity of the separatists. In Scotland, the British government of David Cameron has granted the Scottish Parliament the right to hold a legal referendum on independence. However, Mr Cameron has delivered an _______ call to keep the United Kingdom together. He argued on political, economic and military grounds that Scotland is better off as a part of Great Britain. He focused on the importance of the “powerful” United Kingdom brand and its importance for whole world.

The desire of stateless nations and ________ to fully control their own affairs is an observable phenomenon in Europe. Moreover, the attempts by the EU to increase the degree of ________ with Europe among the population have generated controversy among academics. Some scholars have argued that to create the type of identification in Europe that characterizes the nation-state are ideologically questionable. Some stress the idea that regional and national identities set obstacles to the development of a ________ and of support for some kind of ‘federal’ Europe.

Task 13. Read the text and do the following:

1) substitute Russian wordcombinations in brackets for their English equivalents from the list below;

2) divide the text into thematic parts and provide them with headlines;