It is probably not accidental that the two EU countries facing the most imminent challenge from separatists within their borders – the UK from the Scots, and Spain from the Catalans and Basques – are old, proud, post-imperial nations whose unionist integration was essentially the enterprise of monarchy. The eventual answer to this problem does not have to be either separatism or unionism (monarchy is a secondary issue). It could as well be a creative form of federalism, even though federalism as a word, let alone a formula, sends semantic shivers up the political spine of both countries.
歐盟(EU)兩國面臨的分離主義挑戰(zhàn)迫在眉睫——英國的威脅來自蘇格蘭人，西班牙的威脅來自加泰羅尼亞人和巴斯克人。兩國都是古老、自傲的后帝國主義國家，其聯(lián)合主義下的統(tǒng)一本質(zhì)上是君主制所追求的事業(yè)，這或許并非巧合。問題的最終答案不一定非得是分離和統(tǒng)一之間二選一（君主制是次要問題）。答案可以是創(chuàng)新的聯(lián)邦制，雖然光是聯(lián)邦制這個詞語（更不用說這個體制了）就足以讓兩國的政治階層脊梁打顫了。