Around 30 MEPs demand release of Catalan “political and social leaders”

Around 30 MEPs demand the release of Catalan “political and social leaders” that are currently in jail in Madrid, the end of Article 155, and the intervention of the European Union in the political conflict between Spain and Catalonia in order to achieve “a negotiated solution” and an “agreed referendum”. MEPs presented the EU-Catalonia Dialogue platform in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Some of the members that are part of the platform include the daughter of one of the founding fathers of the EU, Barbara Spinelli, the former Slovenian Foreign Minister, Ivo Vajgl, and the vice-president of the S&D, Tanja Fajon.

The members of the EU-Catalonia Dialogue platform also wrote a letter addressed to the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and his predecessor, Martin Schulz, in order for them to speak out about the imprisonment of Catalan officials, especially of the imprisonment of Raül Romeva and Oriol Junqueras, who had also been MEPs.

A group manifesto

"We are deeply concerned about the critical point that the situation in Catalonia has reached, and that’s why we have decided that joining our voices and carrying out joint actions is the strongest way to claim that the EU acts responsibly and promotes dialogue in order to find a solution,” said the MEPs in the group's manifesto.