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Catalonia would be the eleventh country in the EU in terms of exports if it were to become independent, and would be ahead of Austria, Denmark and Finland. Catalan companies’ exports to the rest of Spain and to the whole of the EU represent 47.7% of Catalonia's GDP, which is 14 percentage points higher than the EU average (33.2%). 2015 marked a new record for Catalan exports, reaching 102,487 million euros and Catalan companies which export regularly already represent 34.4% of the Spanish figure overall. Regarding exports per capita, an independent Catalonia will rank ninth, with 13,650 euros, ahead of France, United Kingdom and Portugal. These figures were released by the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency, ACCIÓ.   

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont celebrated the “consensus” that the construction of the Mediterranean Railway Corridor has amongst the political, social and economic agents in Catalonia and also amongst the regional governments involved in the construction, such as those of Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Murcia. However, he urged Spain’s executive “to listen” to their demands and also to Europe’s warnings and promote thislong-awaited piece of infrastructure which is set to transport freight and passengers non-stop from Gibraltar to Central Europe. Indeed, the European Court of Auditors reported on Tuesday that the EU “had not been effective in enhancing rail freight transport” and that the targets for “the number of freight trains and the tonnage of goods transported” on the section between Spain and France, which has still to be completed, “are far from being achieved”.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos stated that “all levels of governance can contribute” to the European Commission’s commitments to tackle the refuges crisis. In a letter addressed to Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, Avramopoulos considered Catalonia’s offer to host 4,500 refugees “a step in the right direction” and called for the offer to become a reality as soon as possible. He also lamented that Spain had “only relocated 18 migrants” besides having committed to “assisting 6,127” refugees. “These schemes have to be implemented as a matter of urgency” to “ensure that the Union takes on its fair share of the global responsibility to provide a safe haven for the world's refugees”, stated the letter. Avramopoulos also expressed his will for Spain’s government to “support” Catalonia’s efforts in this matter, as it is “responsible for the implementation of the relevant EU decisions”.

Spain’s justice has “room for improvement” especially regarding the “number of administrative cases pending” and the “clearance rate” for civil and commercial litigation. This is what the EU’s Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, stated this Monday at the presentation of the 2016 EU Justice Scoreboard, a document which gives a comparative overview of the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems in the EU Member States. “Perceived judicial independence” of Spain’s courts and its magistrates is the sixth lowest of the 28 Member States and 56% of the citizens and companies surveyed considered it “fairly bad” or “very bad”. Only Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovakia got worse marks. “Interference or pressure from government and politicians” is the main cause of this bad perception of judicial independence.

Barcelona’s Mayor, Ada Colau, travelled to Brussels this Tuesday to report Spain’s “immoral”management regarding the refugee crisis, which she described as “deeply shaming”. According to Colau, citizens in Barcelona “are asking to be a host city”and “die of shame and outrage when they see images of Lesbos and Idomeni”. “We are part of the solution, we have expertise and are willing to help”she stated, but regretted that sometimes local governments “are not taken into account”. Together with other European mayors, Colau met the EU's migration Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, and asked them to “listen to the local governments”. Avramopoulos assured that he “took note”of Colau’s demands but emphasised that EU support to local authorities is always “through the Member States”.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont expressed Catalonia’s willingness to accommodate 4,500 refugees and provide “a solution for those millions of people running away from war”. In a letter to the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont stated that the Catalan government and institutions are “working to accommodate around 4,500 refugees” and assured that Catalonia is “ready to receive up to 1,800 refugees” right now, “600 of which would be hosted directly by the Catalan government”. On the other hand, the Spanish executive responded to Puigdemont’s action and accused him of acting “unilaterally” and “adding more problems” to the existing situation. “A region in Europe wants to be the solution to the problem, this is impossible”, stated current Spanish vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will promote a common front with other Autonomous Communities in Spain to report to the EU that the Spanish government is failing to fulfil its promises regarding the construction of the Mediterranean corridor. This long-awaited railway corridor is set to transport freight and passengers non-stop from Gibraltar to Central Europe and would connect the Spanish Mediterranean ports, which are a gateway to North Africa and represent 50% of the Spanish population and wealth. According to Puigdemont, the Spanish State “is failing to fulfil” their promises and “Europe as a whole” will have to “pay the price for it”. Thus, he announced the constitution of a strategic board with Autonomic governments, chambers of commerce, trade unions and businesspersons associations to unblock the situation.  

The European Parliament has approved a new Port Services Regulation (PSR) which grants each port the legislative power to regulate its own rates and internal structure. This new regulation could end the “hypercentralism” of the Puertos del Estado, the government-run sector which controls the ports in Spain. As the Port of Barcelona has seen more and more traffic in the last few years, this could allow for it to truly ¨thrive”, by allowing it to lower its rates to more competitive prices, and opening it to becoming a European port for international commerce. The conservative People’s Party (PP), the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), and Unionist Ciutadans all voted against the legislation. 

The number of patent applications submitted in Barcelona exceeded those of Madrid, leading Spain in number of applications filed, and registering an increase from 2014. Within the EU, Spain is “at the tail end of the main group”, while Catalonia shows a “certain innovation that possibly doesn’t exist yet in other Spanish regions”. In Barcelona, the Esteve pharmaceutical laboratory is the Catalan business which has submitted the most patent applications, followed by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the pharmaceutical company Almirall. Spain has not yet decided to join the EU Unitary Patent, which would give it access to the standardised patent system but exclude it from having “any influential capacity” in its regulatory bodies.

Six MEPs from the Committee on Petitions visited the Ebro Delta, in Catalonia’s southern region of Tarragona, to meet the several petitioners who have claimed that Spain’s new National Water Plan (NWP) may infringe the EU Water Framework Directive. Environmentalists say one of Europe's most important wetland areas is under threat as Spain’s new Plan aims to reduce the river’s flow to 3,000 cubic hectometres per year and add 465,000 new hectares of irrigated lands to an already existing one million hectares, which will also contribute to cutting the sediment level dramatically. Besides the risk to the delta’s survival, the Platform for the Defence of the Ebro Delta (PDE) are worried that ultimately these waters could be transferred to other, drier regions of Spain. The visit of the EU delegation comes after 50,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Amposta in Catalonia on Sunday to protest against the plans.

If Catalonia proclaims its independence, the international community will in the end “accommodate itself to the new reality”, stated former Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson. “Don’t be scared by scaremongering. In the end, all nations and all political leaders have to accommodate themselves to new realities” he assured in an interview with CNA. Although he predicted that proclaiming independence outside of the law will at first be considered “illegal” for the international community, “freezing Catalonia out forever” would be “nonsense”. Baldvin Hannibalsson recognised the Baltic States’ independence in 1991, when neither the United States nor the European powers dared to do so for fear of confronting the USSR.

The new Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, former MEP Raül Romeva, defended Catalonia’s potential contribution to the EU, especially due to its diverse nature. According to Romeva plurality is a core value of the EU despite “the voices which try to impose certain ideologies which deny diversity and plurality”. During his first public event at the head of the new Ministry, Romeva assured that there is “no news” regarding the Spanish government’s decision to take the new Ministry before the court (they claim that it violates some of the Spanish executive’s competences). He went on to highlight the importance of legality in the EU “but also democracy”. “When it is against its people, the State has a problem” stated Romeva.

The European Commission’s President, Jean-Claude Juncker, urged Spain to form a “stable government” and do it “as quick as possible, as it belongs to the Eurozone”. Juncker refused to “give an opinion on the movements in some regions and provinces”, referring to Catalonia’s push for independence, but called for “Spain to rise to” the circumstances. In a similar vein, the Euro Parliament’s President, Martin Schulz, assured that the Catalan case would have to be “dealt with within the framework of the Constitution”. The Vice President of Flemish Nationalist party N-VA, Sander Loones, commented that the EC “missed a great opportunity” by not taking up a role as mediator and noted that “saying that it is a Spanish issue only is a way of making sure that nothing will move”.

Companies, entities and citizens have European funding opportunities at their disposal to make their projects grow. To promote these EU resources and facilitate access to them, the Catalan government has launched a website which includes the available European funding opportunities and the calls for entry in progress. “We must break the myth of a lack of access” to the EU institutions, stated the Catalan Permanent Representative to the EU, Amadeu Altafaj, and added that “they are more open and more accessible than what people may think”. The Catalan Foreign Affairs Secretary, Roger Albinyana, encouraged everybody to “make the most of the European funding opportunities” and called Catalans to be “even more ambitious”.

Christian-Democrat Unió is the smaller party within the former governing coalition CiU. After the political alliance's break up, Unió is running in the Spanish elections "to represent all those Catalans who defend a moderate position" and believe "in dialogue and agreement" as the only "possible solution" to improve Catalonia's relationship with Spain, stated its leader Josep Anton Duran i Lleida. According to Duran the "pro-independence forces are tricking the citizens" in Catalonia, as they have "already reached an agreement" but refuse "to explain its consequences to the citizens" which he assured "represents electoral fraud". Catalonia's independence, besides being "impossible" will lead to "political and economic instability", assured Duran i Lleida and added that none of the parties involved and "of course not the EU" will accept the rupture of a Member State nor another crisis within the EU "like the Greek one but with greater dimensions".