catalan ombudsman

Politics

Catalan Ombudsman warns separation of powers in Spain is “deteriorating”

April 29, 2017 11:08 AM | ACN

The Ombudsman of Catalonia, Rafael Ribó, presented on Friday the report “Regression of human rights: freedom of speech of elected representatives and separation of power in the Spanish Kingdom” to the President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, which warns of a “deterioration of the principle of separation of power in Spain”. Ribó criticized the suppression of “freedom of speech of elected representatives” and their “criminal prosecution”, which infringes “European law”. The Ombudsman denounced the criminal prosecution of elected representatives “at many different levels”, from local representatives to members of Parliament, and highlighted the case against Carme Forcadell and four members of her Bureau for allowing a debate in the plenary about an independence resolution.

Politics

The Catalan Ombudsman states its resolutions cost 14 times less than those of the Spanish Ombudsman

June 28, 2013 11:37 PM | CNA

The Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó, accused the Spanish Government of trying “to manipulate” data in its report last week, in order to push forward a recentralisation reform, which “goes against the self-government principle”. Ribó explained that the Spanish Ombudsman undertook 33,849 actions in 2012, which means each action cost an average of €428. In addition, it refused to accept 20,164 complaints. Meanwhile, the Catalan Ombudsman undertook 25,073 actions, with a cost of €279 each. The Catalan institution only rejected 267 complaints. Regarding resolutions and recommendations, the Spanish Ombudsman issued 548 while the Catalan body issued 3,635. This means that each resolution by the Spanish body cost €26,447 while the Catalan’s cost €1,925, which is 13.75 times less.

Politics

High-level meeting in Catalonia to improve the fight against corruption after the latest scandals

February 6, 2013 10:41 PM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, organised a summit with top representatives from all the public powers involved in the fight against corruption and fraud to exchange ideas and come up with a set of measures. Political parties were not invited and some of them have protested. After the meeting, Mas explained that the attendees agreed to transform the Transparency Agreement from 2001 regarding the funding of political parties into a law in order to enforce it. Furthermore, the Catalan Government will allocate more resources to the judicial powers investigating the main corruption cases. The attendees agreed to compile the initiatives discussed in a document and meet again in two weeks’ time.