EFA MEPs welcome self-determination caucus
Press release from the EFA MEPs
EFA MEPs have welcomed the establishment of a self-determination caucus within the European Parliament.
This new initiative brings together MEPs from different political groups in support of the right to self-determination for the peoples and communities of the EU's stateless nations and nations with territorial disputes.
EFA MEPs Jordi Solé, François Alfonsi and Diana Riba are members of the new group.
They are supporting the creation of a European Clarity Act which would help resolve democratic disputes over self-determination within the EU, and are calling for the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe to address this.
President of the EFA Group in the European Parliament, Jordi Solé said:
"We are very happy to join this initiative and group of MEPs supporting the right to self-determination. We intend to bring the debate on the right to self-determination into the European Parliament and the EU institutions over the coming months and years.
"There are open and unresolved issues on self-determination across the European Union. These legitimate and democratic demands will not vanish into thin air simply by looking the other way.
"We all witnessed what happened in Catalonia when peaceful citizens and voters were beaten by police just because they wanted to vote and exercise their right to self-determination. This can never be allowed to happen again in a European Union which claims as its core values diversity, democracy and freedom.
"We propose a European framework to address these very legitimate and democratic demands. These are legitimate political demands which should never be addressed with police or judicial oppression. Through discussion and negotiation we need to develop a legal framework that will deal with how these demands can be properly addressed where they exist in various territories across the European Union.
"We aim to bring forward our proposal for a European Clarity Law to the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe."
EFA MEP François Alfonsi said:
"The future of Europe is a long term project which requires a solid base.
"Recent events have shown how the issues at the heart of what we're discussing today have posed fundamental, searching questions for the whole of Europe.
"Don't forget, we witnessed the first time the European Parliament opened its term without a full complement of MEPs. Four Catalans were prevented from taking up their seats, and it took the intervention of the Court of Justice to resolve matters.
"We find ourselves in a special situation, both institutionally and politically, and this needs to be addressed by the Conference on the Future of Europe.
"This is because when these situations arise we need to have a way of addressing them for all European territories and peoples. All territories and peoples who don't have their own state but desire to be part of the European Union based on their own free choice through exercising the right to self-determination."
