council

The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) has been invited by the Electoral Commission of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to observe the early parliamentary elections that will take place on Sunday. A team of eleven observers trained in international electoral observation, who are currently following the final days of the election campaign and the preparations for the vote in the regions of Skopje, the Northeast, the Southwest, and Pegalonia. On Sunday they will observe the actual vote itself, the vote count, the compiling of the results, and the final announcement of the results. This is not the first time that Catalonia’s Public Diplomacy Council sends an observation mission to another country; recently, in October, they travelled to Morocco and so far they have also been present at elections in Uruguay, Costa Rica and Armenia.

Barcelona City Council will allocate almost €4.5 million for the maintenance, restoration and enhancement of the architectural heritage of Antoni Gaudí’s famous Park Güell and its surroundings. This investment comes from the fee charged to enter the park, but also partly from the city tourist tax, Barcelona Councillor for Architecture Daniel Mòdol stated. Since October 2013, tourists visiting the spot have had to pay an entrance fee. The Councillor of Gràcia District in Barcelona, Eloi Badia, explained that the remodelling aims at controlling the influx of visitors and recovering the daily life of the neighbourhood as well as the cultural and commercial activity of the area. According to Badia, many neighbours believe that they have to pay to enter the enclosure, but locals are not charged. “We want neighbours to understand that they can access [the park] for free, and we want to recover the cultural and daily activities”, he stressed.

The Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, voted against the new regional deficit target of 0.6% of GDP agreed between the Conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialists (PSOE). During the Council on Fiscal and Financial Policies (CPFF, going by its Catalan initials) on Thursday evening, Junqueras said that the target is “absolutely far from what citizens need and deserve”. The Catalan Government had asked for a 1.18% deficit target for 2017, but the Autonomous Communities’ limits were set instead at 0.6% for next year, 0.3% for 2018 and 0% of GDP for 2019. They were accepted despite the opposition of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. The communities led by the PSOE abstained. The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, celebrated the fact that only three territories voted against the measure, saying there was a “good atmosphere” at the meeting.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, is suspicious regarding Spain’s executive willingness to dialogue. During this Wednesday’s session of control in the Parliament, Puigdemont stated that Catalonia deserves a bilateral negotiation with the Government in Madrid and that he considers anything other than this a way to “dilute and disguise what is really going on” in Catalonia and therefore “confuse public opinion”. Pro-independence radical left CUP MP, Mireia Boya, went a bit further and urged Puigdemont not to go along with Spain’s “siren calls” in relation to its supposed openness to dialogue. On the other hand, Xavier García Albiol, the leader of the Catalan branch of Spain’s governing party PP, called for Puigdemont not to be like “a statue” before the “signals” sent by the Spanish Government. 

Thirty-nine international recognised names in the field of diplomacy, economics, the arts, sports and research have been appointed members of the recently created Advisory Council of the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat). The members of the body, aimed at projecting Catalonia to the world, will take part in it for a period of four years, which can be renewed, and will do so in an altruistic manner. Diplocat decided to set up this body during a plenary session held on Thursday at the Sala Tàpies at the Catalan Government headquarters, Palau de la Generalitat. Some of the most well-known names of the Council are: former US ambassador, Ambler Moss; former Mexican ambassador, Arturo Sarukhan; Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Central Europe, Montserrat Feixas; businesswoman Sol Daurella; musicians Jordi Savall and Josep Carreras; Swedish MEP Bodil Valero; philosopher Josep Ramoneda; chef Carme Ruscalleda and footballer Xavi Hernàndez

Catalan judge Santiago Vidal faces a three-year suspension from office for writing a draft of a theoretical Catalan Constitution. Although the proposal was not supposed to replace any Constitution or be directly adopted if Catalonia became independent but rather to steer debate by putting on the table specific constitutional articles, Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has confirmed Spain’s Judicial Power Council (CGPJ)’s decision, announced in February 2015, and has insisted that Vidal committed “a very grave offence” and “inexcusably failed to fulfil his judicial duties”. Thus, the appeal presented by Vidal, after considering the sanction to respond to “political and ideological criteria”, has been rejected by 21 magistrates, while 11 have expressed their conformity with the appeal.  

This Friday’s plenary session at Barcelona City Hall resulted in the reprobation of Mayor Ada Colau. All the parties in the Chamber except from the governing alternative left alliance ‘Barcelona en Comú’ and radical left pro-independence CUP criticised Colau’s “politics of gesture”. “Today your government was defeated, the majority in the chamber censors your way of governing and is telling you that we can’t continue like this”, stated liberal CiU’s spokesman in Barcelona City Hall, Joaquim Forn. Moreover, Forn committed to discussing with all the groups in the Chamber how “to build an alternative majority to the current government”. Colau, a former activist especially committed to fighting evictions, won the local elections in May last year. However, she only obtained 11 seats, just one more than the second most voted list, CiU.

Spain is failing in transparency and judicial independence. According to the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (Greco), the Spanish Government has not satisfactorily applied any of the eleven recommendations made by the Council of Europe (CoE) in 2013, which aimed at promoting the fight against corruption and guaranteeing judicial independence. In a report published this Monday, Greco states that it is “key” to increase “transparency of communication between the Prosecutor General and the Government”. Moreover, it warns that it is “crucial” that the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) in Spain is “not only free, but also seen to be free from political influence”. The text also stresses that “political authorities should not be involved, at any stage, in the selection process of judicial staff".

The National Council for Human Rights, the Moroccan agency responsible for accrediting international observers, has invited the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) to join the almost one hundred observers monitoring the elections taking place in Morocco this Friday 9^th of October. Diplocat has send a mission of 12 people that have received training in the field of international observation ad have followed the election campaign and the preparation for this day. The general secretary of Diplocat, Albert Royo, believes that this mission Catalonia has sent is relevant because it "makes Catalonia visible as an international committed, serious and responsible actor, in a natural space of action as is the Mediterranean area". The election observation mission will present an assessment report publicly after the election.

Barcelona’s battle against illegal apartment rentals has recently taken a new turn.The European Holiday Home Association (EHHA) filed last Thursday a formal complaint with the European Commission against the “restrictions” on the renting of apartments for tourists in Barcelona. The city launchedlast July an action plan against illegal tourist accommodations. Residents consider them to be the main cause for the presence of tourists in quiet neighbourhoods and the disruption of neighbours’ tranquillity. Up to 30 million people visit Barcelona each year. Although tourism represents a significant revenue stream, the increasing number of reported incidents of noise, public urination and nudity in some spots is too much to handle. Barcelona’s action plan aims at detecting illegal sublets as well as denouncing platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway for offering them on their platforms. The City Council has threatened to fine the websites €600,000 each, despite Airbnb contributing €740 million to Barcelona´s revenue in 2015. 

Visitors coming to Barcelona in 2017 may be levied with a tourist tax. This would be added to the fee Catalonia already applies to people staying in Catalan hotels, camping sites and tourist cottages. The Municipal Commission of Economy and Finance passed on Tuesday a proposal presented by liberal ‘Convergència i Unió’ (CiU) in which the political party asks the local government to consider the application of a tourist tax, fee or public levy. The aim is to balance the costs and benefits of receiving around 30 million visitors each year. The text approved also insists on the necessity of demanding from the Catalan Government the transfer of all the revenue collected from tourists visiting the city, and not just half of it.

Governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, the two pro-independence forces in the Parliament, put in place this Friday the basis for the future Catalan Tax Agency. It will be constituted by three bodies: the Catalan Tax Agency, the Board of Taxes and the Fiscal Council. The latter is one of the main novelties of the document registered by the pro-independence groups. The Fiscal Council, a body which doesn’t exist within the Spanish framework, will include representatives from both the public and private sector and will be responsible for advising the Government. The proposal will have to be put to vote after this summer as one of the three ‘laws of disconnection’ from Spain that both groups plan to approve, according to the pro-independence roadmap.

A year’s extension for Spain on its allotted time to meet the public deficit target has been deemed illegal by the lawyers at the European Council. This ruling comes after current Spanish President Mariano Rajoy sent a letter asking for an extension to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. A legal report to the Council was commissioned by the presidency of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin), after Germany’s complaints of having saved Mariano Rajoy from a sanction during the Spanish electoral campaign. However, the Ministers of Economy and Finance of the EU will not be able to approve this extra year until the European Commission decides whether or not it is punishable by a fine of up to 2 billion euros due to breach of the public deficit target. Despite the ruling, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has stated that there is “no doubt” that no fine will be issued for missing the deficit in 2015.

The European body expressed its concerns regarding the use of Catalan and the Spanish State’s other “regional languages” in the administration of justice and in the health service. The Council of Europe called on the Spanish State to “modify the legal frame” and “guarantee that an appropriate proportion of the administration of justice’s workers” has a “practical knowledge” of the Catalan language. The European body, composed by 47 European countries, approved this Thursday “six recommendations” to solve “some important problems” and make sure that the Spanish State respects the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.This is the fourth report of this kind, after similar ones were written in 2005, 2008 and 2012. It states that the situation “has improved considerably” in the last four years, especially due to the Autonomous Communities’ efforts.

International experts from different fields debated on independence processes in the EU at the conference "Self-determination Processes: Challenge or Opportunity for the EU?" organised by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and the Centre for European Studies of Jagiellonian University in Krakow. According to DIPLOCAT's Secretary General, Albert Royo, the Catalan process is a "unique opportunity for the EU" to show that a "territorial conflict could be solved in a peaceful and democratic way". Professor of History at Pompeu Fabra University Fernando Guirao added that it would be “absurd” to talk about an automatic expulsion from the EU and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe Michal Natorski noted that "all secession processes are negotiated and finally accepted if they come to terms in a democratic way". Delegate of the Government of Catalonia to Austria, Adam Casals, also attended the conference.