How the EU failed to prevent the Catalan 'train crash'

On 24 January 2017, in a packed auditorium at the European Parliament in Brussels, Carles Puigdemont already announced what was going to happen.

"At the latest in September 2017, Catalonia will hold a binding independence referendum," said the president of Catalonia's regional government - although the vote eventually took place one day after that deadline, on 1 October.

"This is a European problem," he added, laying out his s...