Spain's rotating presidency of the European Council in the second half of 2023 is seen by Junts per Catalunya as an opportunity to place the Catalan issue on the political agenda, to "denounce the situation in Catalonia and the conflict with the State" with " special emphasis”. “It is a moment that we plan to take full advantage of,” they maintain in the formation.
The deputies of the Parlament, the Congress, the senators and the MEPs met this Monday in Brussels, at the headquarters of the European Parliament, to address the coordination of the political action of the Junts groups in the different Chambers and have focused during all day today in this regard, leaving aside the Catalan political agenda for a day. The meeting was attended by former president Carles Puigdemont, as well as the general secretary, Jordi Turull, and the president of the party, Laura Borràs.
The training intends that, during the European presidency of Pedro Sánchez, the violation of civil and political rights and the violation of the rule of law be discussed, denouncing the double standards in the European institutions when these issues are addressed in relation to Spain or in relation to Poland and Hungary, the situation of the Catalan language, especially in education, or the centralized and insufficient management of European Next Generation funds.
This was detailed this Monday at a press conference by the MEP and former Minister of Health Toni Comín, who has assured that they will also try to address in the European Parliament the justification for the dirty war of former socialist minister José Barrionuevo, in the opinion of the leader of Junts, " a European problem since “state terrorism violates the fundamental principles of the founding treaty of the European Union”.
JxCat's intention is, with an eye on the second half of next year, to hold meetings like the one on Monday on a regular basis, so that there is coordination in the different legislative chambers. "It allows us to be consistent, we are satisfied", Comín has valued.
The former minister pointed out during his speech that the European Commission (EC) "lacks the duty of impartiality when its report on the rule of law does not put on the table what the Council of Europe and the European courts do, the serious risk of violation or explicit violation of fundamental rights by the Spanish State”. "It must be said in a coordinated way and with special emphasis during the presidency of the day," they say in Junts.
For the postconvergents, the fact that the EC mission in Spain on espionage against the independence movement with the Pegasus program has not been approved "is further proof of the double standards practiced by the European institutions when they point to Poland and Hungary and maintain the silence with the Spanish justice".
Regarding the management of the European funds that were enabled by the covid pandemic, the JxCat MEP lamented that, as is the case with investments and general budgets, the percentage that would correspond to Catalonia is not being dedicated to Catalonia. function of the GDP or the number of inhabitants. "The Government should have a minimally relevant role and the role of the regional governments is little more than irrelevant and merely administrative," the former minister has complained.
Comín has also accused Pere Aragonès of having allowed a goal to be scored by the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, since during the meeting they held in Brussels in October he asked him to comply with the sentence on the use of Spanish in school, a fact that in Junts they see "disturbing".
"You cannot leave the goal empty in this way. Go to Brussels and that in the end it will serve for the commissioner to score a goal of this magnitude and that what happens is a wake-up call from the European Executive to the Catalan Executive so that it applies a sentence that does not have to apply", has snapped Comín. "I already assure you that, communicatively, the result of this meeting with Commissioner Reynders, if it had depended on JxCat, would have been very different," the pro-independence leader has sentenced.
