EU repeats call for talks between Catalonia and Spain

The European Commission (EC) has again called on the Spanish and Catalan executives to begin talks on the conflict over Catalonia’s independence. “It’s time to talk,” said the EC’s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans on Wednesday. In a debate on the issue in the European Parliament, Timmermans repeated the backing the EC gave to Spanish President Mariano Rajoy in a statement published on Monday, after Sunday’s images of Spanish police violence against people attempting to vote in the unilateral referendum on independence.

The EC received criticism on Monday for what was seen by some as a failure to condemn the police brutality. Monday’s statement limited the comments on the police aggression to a single line: “Violence can never be an instrument in politics.” On Wednesday, Timmermans called the brutal images “saddening” and insisted that “violence does not solve anything in politics,” but added, “it is of course a duty for any government to uphold the rule of law and this sometimes does require the proportionate use of force.”