Spain will consider Catalan government statements proof of unfulfilment of Constitutional Court rulings

Barcelona (CNA).- Declarations from several members of the Catalan government are believed to constitute “acknowledgment on their part” and are to be used in legal procedures such as the recent suspension of the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC), stated the Spanish government’s acting vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. Thus, the Spanish executive will use such statements as proof and add them to their own allegations in cases which they believe to be against the Spanish Constitution. In the case of the suspension of the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Spanish executive will also use the letter published earlier this week which the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, former MEP Raül Romeva, wrote to the European Parliament’s President, Martin Schulz. “I am taking up my duties with confidence and full determination” he stated and asked for Schulz’s support “in facing the formidable challenges ahead and the task with which our citizens have democratically entrusted us”.

Some of the Catalan government’s statements, including Romeva’s letter to President Schulz, “represent, by means of political declarations and press conferences, an assumption of the government’s main arguments for bringing up these conflicts of competences and unconstitutionality appeals” assured Sáenz de Santamaría. “They admit that the Spanish government’s claims are right”, she stated. According to her, such statements prove that the executive of Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is setting up “state structures” according to “the process” and will therefore be added to Spain’s allegation “as irrefutable proof and acknowledgment on their part that the appeal is justified”.

Romeva’s letter to Schulz also to be used as proof of unfulfilment

The Spanish newspaper ‘El Mundo’ published this Thursday a letter sent by the Catalan Minister from Foreign Affairs Raül Romeva to the President of the European Parliament, on the 2^nd of February. In the letter, the pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sï’ member and former MEP for the Green Party informed Schulz of his “recent appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government”. “I am taking up my duties with confidence and full determination and I am fully aware of the responsibility this new post implies, especially considering that this is a crucial time in Catalonia’s long history” he stated in the letter.

Romeva also noted that “this is the first time that the Government of Catalonia grants the rank of Ministry to the department in charge of the area of foreign affairs” which “highlights the importance that our government attaches to dialogue and exchange with our international partners, and notably the European ones”.

Romeva also asked Schulz for his “support in facing the formidable challenges ahead and the task with which our citizens have democratically entrusted us”.

MEPs from anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’ and Spanish nationalist and populist party UPyD, which are part of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, also sent a letter to Schulz accusing Romeva of “institutional disloyalty”. The signers of the letter are Ciutadans’ Javier Nart and Carolina Punset and UPyD MEPs Teresa Giménez Barbat, Maite Pagazaurtundúa, Beatriz Becerra and Enrique Calvet.

Other recent suspensions by the TC

Sáenz de Santamaría emphasised that the Spanish State has already achieved suspension, via the TC, of the previous Catalan law for the creation of structures of state, the commission for national transition, the Study Committee for the Constitutive Process, the Law for Foreign Affairs, which is “temporarily suspended”, and the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency “which is partially suspended”.

In November, the TC also suspended the Parliament’s pro-independence declaration proposal and a month earlier it suspended for at least five months the reform of the law which would regulate Catalonia’s Tax Agency.

Moreover, this Friday the Spanish executive also announced that they will present an appeal of unconstitutionality against the law which regulates the activities of sports professions. According to the Spanish government, the law creates “an excess of competitions ” since Catalonia “doesn’t have competences to hold international agreements, either with EU member states or other international subjects”.