Government to open new delegations in Portugal, Vatican City and Morocco

Barcelona (CNA).- Three new Catalan government delegations will be opened during this term of office. According to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Jordi Solé, the new delegation in Lisbon will be in full operation “in the following months” while those planned for the Vatican City and Morocco are still pending deployment by the Government. Although these three new delegations have already been appealed by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC), Solé insisted on the “key role” that these institutions play in Catalonia’s foreign affairs strategy and emphasised the government’s will to “continue deploying Catalonia’s institutional representation in the world”. The Catalan government already has seven delegations abroad, as well as three more projected in the short-term and some others to be opened in the near future.

When the 10 existing delegations are in full operation – seven are already working and the three in Portugal, the Vatican City and Morocco – there will be new ones”, stated Solé. “We are looking for the right place, moment and sequence” he added. Thus, the government will “continue to deploy Catalonia’s institutional representation in the world”.

According to Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs Raül Romeva’s right-hand man, the government “needs to reinforce the existing delegations” whose task is “indispensable for both the government and the country”.

Portugal, Vatican City and Morocco already approved

Besides these plans for the near future within this term of office, the government wants to launch the three delegations which have already been announced and created by decree. “One of these, Lisbon’s, will be in full operation within its own space in the following months” stated Solé. He added that this delegation has already “a delegate who acts as such” and the only thing left to do is “open the headquarters”.

Regarding the Vatican City and Morocco, Solé stated that “there are no delegates nominated yet” and the delegations haven’t been deployed yet. “The government is studying how to proceed on these two delegations” he added.

Map of the Catalan delegations in the world

Catalonia is already present in seven countries worldwide. There are Catalan government delegations in the UK (which also covers representation to Ireland), Germany, Italy, Austria, France (which also covers Switzerland), in Brussels and in the US (which also covers Canada and Mexico).

The TC’s actions against Catalonia’s Foreign Affairs strategy

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) announced that the creation of the three new delegations will be appealed, after considering their launch to be against Catalonia’s competences in this matter.

This decision is to be added to the controversy surrounding the creation of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which was announced soon after Catalan President Carles Puigdemont took office. Spain’s executive has repeatedly insisted on the alleged illegality of the new Catalan Ministry and has taken its creation and competences before the TC. According to acting Spanish Government’s vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the new department exceeds the competences in matters of foreign action specified in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy and she assured that the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs claims competences which belong “exclusively” to the Spanish State. She also pointed out that the new Catalan Ministry led by former MEP Raül Romeva developed the Law of Foreign Action of the Catalan Government, which was appealed before the TC as well.

Although the Catalan government insisted on the constitutionality of the new Ministry, the TC finally suspended the department.

In response, and as a “preventive measure” to avoid the TC taking further measures against it, Romeva announced that the department will change its name. “We have made this decision in order not to stop” stated Romeva, who insisted that “neither the functions nor the responsibilities” of the department had changed.“Nobody will be able to stop Catalonia’s international projection, as its world is the world” stated Puigdemont in the same vein.

“This government couldn’t finish in a more decadent way” stated President of ‘Junts Pel Sí’s parliamentary group Jordi Turull and assured that they will “hurry up” regarding both Catalonia’s international projection and the commission to study the functioning of the constitutive process. According to Turull, it is “anti-democratic” to attack the Parliament, as “if there is a place where everything can be discussed, it is the Parliament”.