ernest maragall

Foreign minister Ernest Maragall likely to replace Alfred Bosch, say Catalan media

Ernest Maragall claims if prosecuted leaders are found guilty, protests need to "step up"

Foreign minister says appeal by Madrid is a "typical show of absurd and useless pride"

Spanish government rules out independence vote in meeting marked by "great discrepancies" 

Opposition skeptical as governments are set to meet on Wednesday after 7-year break

Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia was closed down by Spain during direct rule

Ernest Maragall reaffirms commitment to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

"There will never be any problem to speak with whoever," says Meritxell Serret, head of the office who is in Belgium seeking refuge while being prosecuted in Spain

Foreign affairs minister says “within six months” Catalonia will have more offices in other countries than when before Spain shut down all but one with direct rule

Ernest Maragall says offices in large world cities could be operational again in “two or three weeks”

Former MEP Ernest Maragall will explain his ministry’s plans and meet with staff from the Catalan delegation to the EU

Spain’s use of the courts to block the pro-independence roadmap has been reported to the 751 members of the European Parliament by three Catalan MEPs. Josep Maria Terricabras and Ernest Maragall, from left wing pro-independence party (ERC), and Ramon Tremosa, representing the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) have sent a letter to their colleagues in the Eurochamber lamenting what they describe as “democratic regression in Spain”. The letter criticised the summonsing of Catalan elected representatives, such as Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for “allowing a parliamentary debate on independence”. It also laments that former Catalan MP and current PDeCat spokesman in the Spanish Parliament, Frances Homs, faces trial for co-organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. 

MEPs from eight different parties asked the European Commission to urge Spain to investigate and judge the crimes committed during Franco’s dictatorship. “Justice doesn’t expire. We don’t aim for vengeance but reparation”stated Catalan left-wing ERC-NeCAT MEP Ernest Maragall on Tuesday at a joint press conference in Strasbourg. Maragall was joined by Catalan MEPs from ERC-NeCAT, liberal party CDC, left-wing ICV and christian democrat UDC, as well as MEPs from Basque nationalist PNB and Bildu and alternative left-wing Spanish parties Compromís and Podemos. They wrote a joint declaration which stated that “the principle of universal justice makes impossible the impunity of the crimes”committed during Francoism and “forces the State to judge those who were responsible”. “This is not about opening wounds but to close them”stated PodemosMEP Miguel Urbán.

Many MEPs and different entities urged the European Parliament to withdraw the European Citizen 2014 award from 'Societat Civil Catalana', a Spanish unity association which has been repeatedly linked with extreme right organisations. Recent investigations also connected SCC's president, Josep Ramon Bosch, with Francoist Fascism and Nazism and Bosch himself has been called to Court accused of threatening pro-independence Catalan figures via a fake Facebook profile. The associations, organisations and public figures signing the 'Manifesto: Catalan civil society, for dignity' accuse SCC of "appropriating themselves of the common term ['Societat Civil Catalana'] which refers to the host of civic, cultural and social entities in Catalonia characterised not only by their diversity but also by their defence of democratic principles, Catalan culture and society as a whole".

The European Parliament's President, Martin Schulz "shares" the Catalan MEPs’ concerns "about the accuracy of the answers to written questions". Schulz was referring to the two different versions, one in Spanish and one in English, of the answer sent by the Commission to PP MEP Santiago Fisas on Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence. "I can assure you that I take this issue very seriously" he stated in a letter sent to the Catalan MEPs on Friday. Schulz assured that he is "fully aware of the sensitivity of this particular issue, especially in the period before the regional elections in Catalonia on 27 September". The Euro Parliament President also assured that the "Parliament's services asked the Commission's competent services to clarify the situation as a matter of urgency" and added that he welcomes the decision to investigate the scandal. "I look forward to being informed of its conclusions" he concluded.