European Commission meeting with Catalan anti-independence group in spotlight

The European Commission met with anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana (SCC, Catalan Civil Society), despite the organization not being registered in the European Union's transparency register.

A meeting took place between the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, and the SCC in December 2021, before the group was added to the transparency register at the end of January 2022.

The European Commission's internal code of conduct prohibits commissioners from meeting with organizations that are not registered.

MEPs belonging to the pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya warned Brussels about this in a European parliament question, but officials dodged the issue.

In their response sent on Friday, the European Commission said they apply "high standards of transparency in contacts with stakeholders". It did not reference the requirements of the code of conduct.

SCC meeting

The then president of the SCC, Fernando Sánchez Costa, and Ciudadanos MEP Ramón Bauzá met with Reynders in early December to ask that Brussels "force public authorities" to comply with a court ruling on the use of Spanish in Catalan classrooms. The group also accused the Catalan government of "eroding" the rule of law.

Junts MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí sent a complaint to the European Commission over the meeting and denounced the SCC's "close ties" with the far right.

Puigdemont critical

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont criticized Reynders on Monday for meeting with SCC while "never finding time" to meet with MEPs from his party, which won the most recent European elections in Catalonia, a fact he reminded Reynders of in a tweet.

Mira que hauria estat fàcil de rebre’ns. Però el comissari @dreynders no troba mai temps per escoltar els qui vam guanyar les eleccions europees a Catalunya i, en canvi, incompleix el codi de conducta per tal de satisfer un diputat de Ciudadanos, que és del seu grup polític. https://t.co/kL0fwObd2X

— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) April 25, 2022

He accused the commissioner of "violating the code of conduct in order to satisfy a member of Ciudadanos, who belongs to his political group."

Reynders, however, defended his actions on Monday, saying it was "logical" to hold the meeting, as there was a "request from the European parliament."

"I received a request from an MEP who came along with other people," he said.

Catalonia's foreign action minister Victoria Alsina said it was "inconceivable" that the European Commission "would not meet for 7 years with the government" but would meet the leader of the Catalan Socialists Salvador Illa and "associations such as Societat Civil Catalana."

Alsina was in Brussels to meet Puigdemont to discuss Catalangate, where the phones of at least 65 Catalan politicians and civil society members were infected with spyware between 2017 and 2020.

Meanwhile, the Pirate Party of Catalonia has asked MEPs belonging to the European Pirate Party to demand an investigation into the meeting and called on the commissioner to resign immediately and for SCC's registration in the transparency register to be cancelled.

Code of conduct

Article 7 of the European Commission's code of contact state that "members and their members of cabinet shall meet only those organizations or self-employed individuals, which are registered in the transparency register ... inasmuch as they fall under its scope."

The transparency register is a database that includes "stakeholders" (organizations, associations, groups and self-employed people) who carry out activities which aim to influence EU policy and decision-making.