Catalan referendum – MEPs address open letter to EP President
Press release from the EFA Group in the European Parliament
In a joint initiative, MEPs from several political groups have written to the President of the European Parliament to take issue with the refusal of Spanish authorities to allow a consultation on Catalonia's constitutional future.
In an open letter they explain that the Catalan Parliament approved a law allowing the consultation by 106 votes to 28, a clear expression of the democratic will of the Catalan people. However the Spanish government subsequently appealed to the constitutional court which has suspended the consultation scheduled for 9 November.
Four of the MEPs who signed the letter explained their position at a press conference in the European Parliament today. They are Ernest Maragall (Greens/EFA), Ramon Tremosa (ALDE), Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA), Francesc Gambús (EPP).
In their letter, the MEPs say:
"We urge you as President of the institution which best personifies democracy at European level to take an interest in this issue and not turn your back on the eight million Catalan citizens of the European Union who wish to express their opinion through the civilised, democratic, peaceful and European medium that is the ballot box.
"The Catalan people who have repeatedly shown their support for the common European project only ask to be allowed to exercise their peaceful and democratic right. They will not understand why the European Union should want to shirk its democratic principles by hiding behind the shield of neutrality."
Catalan MEP Ernest Maragall, a member of the EFA Group in the European Parliament, said:
"We are European citizens who simply want to be given the right to decide on our own future. It's a question of being able to exercise democratic European values.
"What is happening in Catalunya now, and what has happened and is happening in Scotland is no threat whatsoever to the European Union. The real threat to Europe comes from the narrow nationalism of UKIP and the French National Front. What's happening in Catalunya is an opportunity for Europe – we're simply asking for democracy."
