On October 23, 24 and 25, a session of the Assembly of the Europe Region of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF) will be held in the Parliament of Catalonia. This meeting is the result of continuous work by the Parliament since 2008, in which the participation of the Catalan Parliament in this institution with observer status was approved in Quebec. Currently, the Parlament has a member status associated with the APF, which gives it the right to vote, the presentation of candidacies in the governing bodies or the possibility of hosting the meetings of its bodies.
I would like to briefly refer to the objectives and characteristics of the Francophonie in order to be able to explain the interest and relevance, for Parliament and for Catalonia, of belonging to this international institution. From an institutional point of view, La Francophonie embraces an institutional system that has been progressively developing. The APF constitutes the parliamentary dimension of this institutional framework. The original and fundamental objective that gives rise to the Francophonie is the promotion of the Francophone language and culture. However, at present, the four main areas of its action are cultural and linguistic diversity; peace, democracy and human rights; education and research, and sustainable development. A particularity of the Francophonie lies in the fact that some institutions are legally open, in their statutes, alongside sovereign states, to non-state entities.
La Francophonie is a multilateral coordination forum between Francophone states and entities that allows its members to exchange information, develop common positions on issues of mutual interest and defend them before other international institutions or organizations. The fact that La Francophonie is made up of great powers, such as France or Canada, and by states from all regions of the world, guarantees a relevant influence within the main international organizations and conferences.
The main benefit of the participation of the Parliament of Catalonia in the APF derives from the establishment of a network of privileged relationships with representatives of other parliaments of the member states of the Francophonie system, which could serve the strategic interests, political, economic and culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya defined by the majority political forces at any given time. Likewise, the participation of the Parliament in the APF would allow the exercise of the function of representation and information of the political and social reality of Catalonia, in an international parliamentary context, at the same time that it would comply with the legal mandate of projection of Catalonia in the Exterior.
