government

The prestigious publication reacted to the speculations on the inclusion of independent Catalonia and Scotland in the EU. “It is wrong to insinuate that newly independent states could never join the EU”, stated ‘The Economist’ in its latest edition. However, the British magazine also stressed that these two cases have no precedents in Europe and therefore warned that it would be “dishonest to pretend that accession would be quick or easy” for the two nations. Indeed, according to the EU officials quoted in the article, “it would take at least four to five years to negotiate and ratify” Catalonia and Scotland’s EU full-right membership. ‘The Economist’ also scolds the President of the European Commission for having compared the “peaceful referendums in western Europe” to the “violent break-up of a Balkan country”.

Manos Limpias, a Spanish extreme right-wing organisation, presented on Wednesday before Catalonia’ Hight Court (TSJC) a criminal complaint against the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, for the charges of perverting the course of justice, disobeying judicial authority, rebellion and sedition. According to the plaintiffs, the Catalan President is using all means available to achieve Catalonia’s independence. The far-right union mentions the creation of new ‘state structures’, disobeying the Constitutional Court by giving statements that point towards holding a self-determination vote and violating the Spanish Constitution. In the complaint, Manos Limpias is demanding Mas to be interrogated as a suspect while several Catalan politicians would be witnesses.

The new Tax Administration of Catalonia (called ‘Tributs de Catalunya’) has been launched on Thursday in a ceremony chaired by Artur Mas, the President of the Catalan Government. Mas highlighted that “all of this is not against the Spanish State” but “an investment for a better Catalonia”. The new body was created from merging the existing Catalan Government’s Tax Agency and the ones of the four Provincial Councils (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona). Its creation was already foreseen in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish Parliament and the Catalan people through a binding referendum in 2006. It will start with 53 branches, which will mostly deal with municipal taxes. Gradually it will dispose of up to 200 offices dedicated to ensure Catalonia’s fiscal sufficiency. The project was launched in September 2012, aiming to build “a state structure” that would ultimately be able to collect all the taxes generated in Catalonia if needed.

The Spanish nationalist party UPyD (Unión, Progreso y Democracia) has managed its motion against Catalonia’s self-determination to get the support of the governing People’s Party (PP) and the main opposition group, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). The rest of the parties in the Spanish Parliament have opposed the initiative presented by the group led by Rosa Díez, who asked a few months ago to cancel Catalonia’s autonomy and self-government institutions. UPyD’s motion has been approved with 272 ‘yes’ votes, 43 ‘no’ ballots and 1 abstention. The text states that the Spanish Parliament “explicitly and strongly rejects the secessionist plan of the Catalan Government”, mentioning two resolutions approved in 2013 by the Catalan Parliament. In addition, it asks the Spanish Government to “continue using all the tools foreseen in the Constitution and in the whole of the legal framework to guarantee the rule of law”.

The second meeting of the so-called National Alliance for the Right to Self-Determination of Catalonia (Pacte Nacional pel Dret a Decidir) has agreed to focus their efforts on making it possible for Catalans to vote on their own collective future. More than 1,500 organisations are part of this Alliance, including institutions, political parties, trade unions, business organisations, professional associations, NGOs, cultural organisations and political pressure groups. Not all the participating organisations back independence from Spain, but they all fully support Catalonia’s right to decide on its future as nation. In the last few months, many organisations have joined the Alliance, which had its first meeting in June. On Wednesday they analysed the current situation and have agreed to campaign for the right to hold a free and democratic self-determination vote, putting specific ideologies aside.

The Catalan Minister for the Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell, emphatically stated that if it is “neat, the conflict between Catalonia and Spain will not affect the economy” nor business activity. In front of about 250 employers who were invited at a luncheon organised by Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce, Mas-Colell explained that “Catalonia had emerged stronger” from the economic crisis. The former Economics Professor in Harvard and Berkley also emphasised that the Catalan Government “will not do anything that may leave [Catalans] out of Europe”, thereby sending “reassuring” messages to business-owners. In his speech, the Finance Minister also defended the ongoing self-determination process, describing it as an attempt to respond to the Spanish Government’s centralist policy which is looking to “laminate” Catalonia’s Autonomy “using the crisis as an excuse”.

Japanese conductor Kazushi Ono was appointed the next main conductor of the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra (OBC) taking over from the current conductor Pablo Gonzalez in September 2015. The decision to appoint Ono has received the consent of "all parties". The Director of the L’Auditori concert hall, where the OBC is based, hopes that Ono will lead the ensemble to be a worldwide fame orchestra from Catalonia. Ono is currently the main conductor of the orchestra of the Opera National de Lyon and will also be the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Spring 2015.

The business owners’ association Cercle Català de Negocis (CCN) insisted that neither Spain’s confederation of employer associations, CEOE, nor its Catalan member, Foment del Treball “represent anything other than themselves and the interests of large corporations linked to the Spanish Government”. After the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, asked employers to participate in the political debate, these two main employers’ associations have rejected getting involved in the self-determination process. However the CCN recalled that these large corporations only represent a tiny part of Catalonia’s business sector. The CCN stressed that SMEs account for 99% of all Catalan production and many of their owners “have mostly positioned themselves in favour of exercising the right to self-determination”. During a luncheon on Tuesday, Mas nuanced his previous statement, saying that he was “not asking for explicit statements” but “to be within” the political debate. 

In an article published on Tuesday in the prestigious ‘Financial Times’, the newspaper’s chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon Rachman, deplored Madrid’s attitude towards Catalan independence claims, opposing it to the “peaceful” and “consensual” Scottish referendum process enabled by the British Government. The journalist underlined that “there are remarkably few examples of nations breaking up in a civilised way”, mentioning China’s relations with Taiwan, or Turkey’s attitude towards Kurdistan. “Even in democratic Europe, Spain is refusing to contemplate the idea of an independence referendum for Catalonia”, he added. London’s attitude regarding the Scottish case, on the other hand, should be viewed as “a model” for other separatist cases, recognising the UK as a union of nations and stressing the people’s right to decide.

The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled against the Catalan school model again. The model, which is based on the linguistic immersion principle, has been in place since the mid-1980s and totally guarantees the pupils’ knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan at the end of their schooling period. On Monday the Court rejected an appeal lodged last year by the Catalan Government against a previous judgement that obliged a school to go against Catalonia’s Education Law and teach the entire class in Spanish following a single request from a little girl’s family, irrespective of the opinion of the other pupils’ families. This is another episode in a long series of judicial rulings, appeals and judgements against Catalonia’s school model and the Catalan language since 2010. Spanish nationalists, particularly Madrid-based media and the People’s Party (PP), have been attacking this model and the Catalan language for the last decade and a half, but recently they have managed to get the centralist judicial authorities to back them.

Spain’s confederation of employer associations, CEOE, and its Catalan member, Foment del Treball – the largest business organisation in Catalonia, have rejected getting involved in the self-determination process. On Friday, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, asked employers to get involved in all of Catalonia’s three main objectives: fostering the economic recovery, maintaining social cohesion and enabling Catalonia’s self-determination. On Monday, Madrid-based CEOE and Barcelona-based Foment, representing the business establishment at Spanish and Catalan level, answered Mas: they rejected “getting involved” although on previous occasions they have lobbied against independence and against self-determination. They asked for “dialogue” between Spanish and Catalan authorities. Additionally, Foment asked for a “fiscal agreement” for Catalonia.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has called on employers “to work together” on 3 objectives: lifting the economy, ensuring social cohesion through Welfare State public policies and driving forward the political process on Catalonia’s future. On Friday, Mas addressed over a hundred major employers in Catalonia at the Tower Sabadell, during the presentation of the book Capitans d'indústria (which would read as ‘Captains of industry’), written by journalist Francesc Canosa and Farran. During the event, the President of Banc Sabadell, Josep Oliu, called for a “stable political environment” and “peace of mind” so that employers could “focus” all of their energy on their businesses.

The Catalan Executive, chaired by Artur Mas, has published a 50-page memorandum in reply to the report issued by the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, in late December against Catalan independence. Margallo’s document claimed that independence was “immoral” and “not a democratic option”. The 200-page report was distributed to all Spain’s embassies as a list of arguments to be used to lobby against Catalan independence at international level. The memo was written in a condescending tone and included many judgemental opinions, half-truths, partial quotes and even lies. One of them was that Catalonia recovered its self-government institutions thanks to the Constitution, which is false. The Catalan Government has replied with its own memo and has asked the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry to distribute it to all the embassies as well.

The Catalan Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted an Ethics Committee for the Catalan Police Force, called Mossos d’Esquadra. It will be chaired by Francesc Torralba, Director of Applied Ethics at Barcelona’s Ramon Llull University. The Ethics Committee was firstly created by the former Left-Wing Cabinet, when the Home Affairs Ministry was run by a Green Socialist (ICV-EUiA). However, it was suppressed in 2011 by his successor from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). Now, following recent scandals, such as the death of an arrestee, it has been restored. The Ethics Committee is made of ten members who have a non-renewable term of four years: five representatives of the police and home security are joined by five independent university professors in the field of law, ethics and sociology. Their first assignment will be drafting the Catalan Police’s new Code of Ethics.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, was responding to the recent concerns raised by the President of Spain’s main employers’ association CEOE and by a group of 60 German businesspeople. Mas praised the “strength” of Catalonia’s economy, being “the most dynamic in southern Europe”. He stressed that Catalonia is leading the attraction of foreign investment in the whole of southern Europe. Furthermore, in the first 6 weeks of the current year, German companies have already announced €131 million of direct investment in Catalonia. Spanish nationalist parties have stated that the self-determination claims create instability and companies do not like this. Mas replied that Catalonia “has already tried out absolutely everything [to better fit within Spain] and the answer has always been the same: ‘no, no and no, and ten thousand times no’”.