The first Congress of the different Pirate parties of Europe aims to create a Pirate Party at a European level. The Congress made clear the movement’s recipe to tackle the crisis: freedom of information, more transparency, and greater public participation. Forty representatives from throughout Europe met in Catalonia to discuss the future of the political group.
Until now, the EU was refusing to openly discuss the issue and was stating it was strictly an internal matter to be solved within Spain. The President of the European Commission, José Durao Barroso, admitted that “in the hypothetical case of a secession” of Catalonia “the solution should be found and negotiated within the international legal framework”. In this new scenario, Catalonia would not automatically be a member of the EU but this would be part of the negotiations. Barroso was ambiguous about the future of the European citizenship Catalan citizens currently have and said that “EU citizenship is additional”.
The European Parliament, Council and Ombudsman have accused the Spanish Government of not translating legal texts and citizens? communications into and from Catalan. A binding agreement was signed in 2006 obliging Spain to pay for the translations.
The high speed and capacity railway connection for freight and passengers connecting Spain with France will run along the Mediterranean shore. The option of going via Zaragoza through the middle of the Pyrenees clashes with the economic crisis.