More than forty Members of the European Parliament from various parties signed a letter this week addressed to EC President Ursula von der Leyen, urging her to act as a mediator between Spain and Catalonia and to ensure that human rights and fundamental rights in Spain are protected.
“This internal European matter should be resolved under the leadership of Europe,” say the signatories. Two former MEPs, Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva, are imprisoned in Spain due to their role in the Catalan independence referendum. In October, the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine prominent Catalan politicians to very severe penalties for their role in the 2017 independence referendum.
There are also various legal proceedings ongoing in Brussels regarding the admission to the European Parliament of newly elected Spanish MEPs from Catalonia. The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is not the Spanish government in Madrid but the European Parliament itself that decides on admission.
The Prime Minister of the Dutch-speaking Belgian province of Flanders, Jan Jambon, is currently visiting Barcelona to meet with Catalan regional leader Quim Torra. The two regional premiers issued a joint appeal to the European Union to facilitate the “integration of new independent states that have emerged democratically.”
Jambon called on his two fellow Belgians, newly appointed EU President Charles Michel and European Commissioner Didier Reynders, to take action from the EU against the imprisonment of the convicted Catalan politicians.
According to Jambon and Torra, a solution to the Spanish-Catalan conflict must come through political dialogue rather than through the courts, following the example of Scotland. So far, the European Union has remained silent on the matter and views the whole issue as an internal Spanish affair.
Torra is the successor to Carlos Puigdemont, who still lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium. Puigdemont currently resides in Waterloo, Belgium, and there is an international arrest warrant against him. On December 16, a Belgian judge will decide whether that warrant is legally valid. Puigdemont is prosecuted by the central Spanish government for rebellion. In October 2017, he organized an illegal referendum and subsequently declared the independence of the Catalan province.
In February, Puigdemont is set to visit the northern Dutch province of Friesland. According to Omrop Fryslân, “he will speak about the Catalan crisis and how the struggle for autonomy of his people could serve as an example for the Frisians.” Should the arrest warrant be declared null and void, Puigdemont plans to undertake a European tour. The Frisian capital Leeuwarden is first on his list. Contacts with the Catalan president in exile were established by the nationalist Frisian party FNP.