The recent independence tendencies in Scotland and Catalonia can be compared to other cases in Europe after 1989. Apart from the UK and Spain, centrifugal tendencies took place in at least four countries: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the USSR. In all those cases there are some similarities and differences to developments in Scotland and Catalonia. In Belgium, which in the 1990s became a federative state, centrifugal tendencies in Flanders have been similar to those in Scotland and Catalonia. The negotiated dissolution of Czechoslovakia resembles the idea of negotiated independence for Scotland, the main difference is that there was no referendum in Czechoslovakia (its population was against the dissolution), the idea of separation was invented by political leaders and the decision was taken by the parliament. In Yugoslavia and the USSR independence of republics was declared unilaterally by parliaments and confirmed in referendums followed by negotiations and military conflicts
