Experts say Catalan question must be faced to “avoid another front of instability” in Europe

Barcelona. “Sooner or later all European countries as well as their common institutions will be called to take a stand on this issue,” say experts and journalists in a joint statement, published on Tuesday in Catalonia in favor of holding a referendum on independence. To face the Catalan question would help to “solve an old-age problem”, which otherwise may become “another front of instability” in the EU, the text reads. The experts also remind the European institutions that the Catalan case “is a question of principle”: Catalans, who are “determinedly pro-European,” and whose society was firmly grounded “on democratic principles, relying on strictly peaceful methods”, should be held up as an “example” to resolve “controversies between nations and within states”. Finally, the experts say a “satisfactory resolution” of the Catalan issue could also be a “chance for Spain” to break free from the “flaws of a political system” still conditioned “by the regime of 1978”.

Col·lectiu Emma, a group of international journalists and translators, the Wilson Initiative, comprised of internationally renowned economics and political science experts such as Xavier Sala i Martin or Carles Boix, and Col·lectiu Praga, a broad group of legal experts, signed the joint statement, published on Tuesday in Barcelona and in several languages. 

In the statement, the organizations call on the European countries to “take a stance” on the Catalan question. They point out that it would be “good” for the European Union if a referendum was held, because it would recognize Catalonia’s “inherent collective rights as a people” and “their peaceful struggle” would be rewarded, which was from the experts’ point of view “a matter of justice”. Besides, according to the experts, letting the Catalan people vote is necessary in order to keep this deeply rooted problem from leading to more instability within the European Union.