EFA representatives met President Van Rompuy
Press release by the European Free Alliance
President of the European Free Alliance (EFA), Ms. Nelly Maes and MEP Jill Evans, President of the EFA Group in the European Parliament, met with the President of the European Council, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy.
In the one hour meeting with Mr. Van Rompuy, held Thursday 4 March 2010, Ms. Nelly Maes and MEP Jill Evans discussed issues such as 'internal enlargement' of the European Union, the right to self-determination, linguistic diversity and the peace process in the Basque Country.
On internal enlargement Jill Evans explained the interesting case of Catalonia. Madrid did not allow an official referendum and therefore in many villages and towns own initiatives were developed. An overwhelming majority of the voters chose for independence.
In Wales the wish for more powers for Wales will be the subject of a referendum, this was recently voted in the Welsh Assembly.
In Scotland the path to the referendum on full independence is designed and the popular support is enormous.
In the Basque Country, the former prime minister is now being prosecuted because he wanted the Basque population to give the right to decide on their own future. Also the banning of parties, closing down associations, illegalising newspapers were brought under the attention. The lack of democracy in the state of Spain shown by this breach of the principle of self-determination and hindrance of democracy, is shocking.
Flanders in the recent decades gained more powers. Direct representation in Council Meetings is seen for many emerging new states as an important step on the path towards becoming an own state.
Jill Evans declared that "internal enlargement is all about opting in, not opting out the EU".
Van Rompuy showed himself an attentive listener and declared that "he really liked the name and concept of internal enlargement" as EFA developed it.
Maes said: " If the EU only respects states and not regions and stateless nations, the EU will get a lot more states in the future."
EFA Parliamentary Group President and Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans said about linguistic diversity: " I opened our EFA conference this morning speaking Welsh, my mother tongue and with this conference we as EFA would like to bring about more awareness for linguistic equality in the EU. "
The lack of representation or even non-representation of minorities and stateless nations was mentioned being a democratic deficit in the EU. The way the Macedonian minority is treated in Greece and Bulgaria; the unrepresented Frisians in the EP; the lack of powers for many regions in Europe like Rijeka, Aland islands; the centralisation in France; ... all do not help to restore confidence in democracy in the EU.
