Initially loathe to talk publicly about what is very much an internal matter of the Kingdom of Spain and the autonomous community of Catalonia, the European Union is increasingly stepping up to speak against Catalan secession, and against allowing the vote in general.

Most EU officials are couching this as support for "Spanish unity," and/or general stability, while EU President Jean-Claude Juncker warned an independent Republic of Catalonia would not be part of the European Union is they split of from Spain.

It's not so much that all of these nations have specific interests in not seeing an independent Catalonia. Rather, the broad fear within the Union is a precedent of a European country seeing an orderly-ish secession.