catalan meps

Spain’s use of the courts to block the pro-independence roadmap has been reported to the 751 members of the European Parliament by three Catalan MEPs. Josep Maria Terricabras and Ernest Maragall, from left wing pro-independence party (ERC), and Ramon Tremosa, representing the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) have sent a letter to their colleagues in the Eurochamber lamenting what they describe as “democratic regression in Spain”. The letter criticised the summonsing of Catalan elected representatives, such as Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for “allowing a parliamentary debate on independence”. It also laments that former Catalan MP and current PDeCat spokesman in the Spanish Parliament, Frances Homs, faces trial for co-organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. 

Many MEPs and different entities urged the European Parliament to withdraw the European Citizen 2014 award from 'Societat Civil Catalana', a Spanish unity association which has been repeatedly linked with extreme right organisations. Recent investigations also connected SCC's president, Josep Ramon Bosch, with Francoist Fascism and Nazism and Bosch himself has been called to Court accused of threatening pro-independence Catalan figures via a fake Facebook profile. The associations, organisations and public figures signing the 'Manifesto: Catalan civil society, for dignity' accuse SCC of "appropriating themselves of the common term ['Societat Civil Catalana'] which refers to the host of civic, cultural and social entities in Catalonia characterised not only by their diversity but also by their defence of democratic principles, Catalan culture and society as a whole".

The European Parliament's President, Martin Schulz "shares" the Catalan MEPs’ concerns "about the accuracy of the answers to written questions". Schulz was referring to the two different versions, one in Spanish and one in English, of the answer sent by the Commission to PP MEP Santiago Fisas on Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence. "I can assure you that I take this issue very seriously" he stated in a letter sent to the Catalan MEPs on Friday. Schulz assured that he is "fully aware of the sensitivity of this particular issue, especially in the period before the regional elections in Catalonia on 27 September". The Euro Parliament President also assured that the "Parliament's services asked the Commission's competent services to clarify the situation as a matter of urgency" and added that he welcomes the decision to investigate the scandal. "I look forward to being informed of its conclusions" he concluded. 

The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, warned that "any declaration made by members of the EU institutions" regarding Catalonia's independence "would be reflecting their personal view and not the official position of the institution". By stating this, O'Reilly answered a letter sent by Catalan MEPs from liberal CDC, left wing pro-independence ERC-NeCat, Christian Democrat UDC and Eco-Socialist ICV. In the letter, they expressed their concerns about the double version of EC president Jean-Claude Juncker's answer on Catalonia and the problems that many Catalans abroad faced to vote. O'Reilly admitted to being "up to date" on the double answer scandal but asked the MEPs to contact the EC first. Regarding the problems with the vote abroad, O'Reilly considered them a "national matter" and refused the meeting request "for the moment". 

More than 200 elected members of the European, Spanish and Catalan Parliaments and municipal councils from Catalonia have presented and started to sign on Wednesday an international complaint against the Spanish Government that will be sent to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). They are formally accusing the Spanish Government of "violating the right of the Catalan people to decide on its own political future" and "banning the exercise of democracy ". They list reasons of democratic legitimacy, stress the sustained self-determination demands and highlight the manifold Catalan attempts to negotiate and hold a legal vote. They also emphasise the Spanish Government's total blocking attitude and they announce that Catalan representatives "feel legitimate to launch all the necessary political and legal actions". Finally, they also ask those international organisations to act in order "to guarantee that Catalonia's citizenry can democratically decide on its future".

Comparing Catalonia's self-determination process with the Nazi regime has become one of the arguments the Spanish nationalists have used over the last two years, repeated in extreme-right television stations and even at the Spanish Parliament. Such an offensive comparison outrages most of Catalan society, for its total unfairness in describing a democratic process and for trivialising Nazism and the suffering of its victims. Now, the issue has reached the European Parliament, where the Spanish nationalist party UPyD sent a letter to all 751 MEPs comparing the situation in Catalonia with that of "Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s". The CDU MEP Ingeborg Grässle was outraged by the letter and urged UPyD "to at least apologise". "Any politician in Germany would have immediately resigned", she added. Besides, civil society organisations in Barcelona have filed a complaint to the Public Prosecutor Office against dozens of calumnies against self-determination process and its comparison to Nazism.

The MEPs from the Centre-Right pro-Catalan State (CiU), Ramon Tremosa and Francesc Gambús, and the MEP from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNB), Izaskun Bilbao, wrote to the re-elected President of the European Parliament stating that the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in the plenary just depends on a “political decision”. The MEPs asked the leader of the Chamber, a former bookshop owner, to show “respect” for their languages. Tremosa, Gambús and Bilbao said that the decision would cost nothing to the European Parliament as many Spanish translators also speak Catalan, Basque or Galician.

On the same day, the Court re-affirmed its decision to keep its current Chairman in position despite his anti-Catalan public stance and having been a member of the governing People’s Party (PP) until 2011. On top of this, Catalan and Basque Members of the European Parliament from five different parties formally asked the European Commission to intervene against the politicisation of the Spanish Constitutional Court, stressing that EU democracies should have an independent judiciary. The Constitutional Court is the highest interpreter of Spain’s legislation, has to guarantee the respect of fundamental rights and acts as a referee between the different government levels and political actors. In this capacity, it ruled against the appeal presented by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) against the law that abolished the requirement to know Catalan for working as a public servant in Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, despite it being the local language.

Earlier this week the Director of the Public Prosecution Office of Catalonia, Martín Rodríguez Sol, was pushed to resign by his boss at a Spanish level, who is directly appointed by Spain’s Government. Rodríguez Sol said in an interview that it was “legitimate” to “allow the people” to decide on their collective future regarding Catalonia’s self-determination process. However, he emphasised that he was not supporting an independence referendum as such because “it does not fit into the current legal framework”, but he suggested that a “legal vote” could be held with the appropriate question being asked. He also stated that legal frameworks should be connected to social realities and should have the option to be changed. On Thursday six members of the European Parliament, representing four Catalan parties, filed a question to the European Commission about the case.

In order to foster transparency, almost all the Catalan Members of the European Parliament have asked the European Commission to supervise the Catalan Government's budget, and other “regions of systemic importance”. Catalonia’s GDP is as big as that of Finland and Portugal. MEPs from CiU, ERC, ICV, and the PP believe that this procedure will prove Catalonia’s reliability and rigour, and will subsequently have a positive effect on the international financial markets. The PSC is looking at possibly joining the initiative.