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Two of the members of the Swiss Parliament delegation who visited Barcelona last week understand that Catalonia will organize a unilateral referendum if the Spanish state continues in its opposition. The Swiss parliamentarians, Socialist Mathias Reynard and Christian-Democrat Yannick Buttet warn that the Spanish Government’s rejection of dialogue pushes Catalonia towards a unilateral independence referendum and that it is “reasonable” for the pro-independence parliamentary majority to fulfill its democratic mandate. “I am not saying that it is the best solution, but I understand the Catalan Government’s stance,” said Reynard. “What will be essential from a foreign point of view, is participation. We need to know how many Catalans vote, if the referendum is organized in a unilateral way,” added Buttet.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Catalonia, created in March by MPs and Peers from all the political parties, held its first debate on Wednesday. Under the title ‘A Democratic Solution for Catalonia’, the event featured eight speakers, including SNP MP George Kerevan, who is one of the main promoters of the APPG, Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, the Daily Mirror’s Political editor, Jason Beattie, and former Consul for Great Britain in Barcelona, Geoff Cowling, among others. “There is only one democratic solution and it is to let the people vote,” said Kerevan and warned that stopping them “is not the European way”. He also criticized the Spanish Government's decision to ban democratically-elected Catalan political representatives from public office. More than 150 people attended the event, hosted at Atlee Suit, at the British Parliament.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Catalonia, created at Westminster this past March, will hold its first official event this Wednesday. After being inaugurated by Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, on the 14th of March, the APPG will debate ‘A democratic solution for Catalonia’, with the aim of discussing both the right to discuss self-determination in the Catalan Parliament and the Spanish judiciary cases against democratically-elected Catalan officials. SNP MP George Kerevan, who chairs the group, will take part in the debate, together with Plaid Cymru MP, Hywel Williams, Former Consul General in Barcelona for Great Britain, Geoff Cowling, Daily Mirror´s Head of Politics, Jason Beattie, and former Catalan government official and Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, Michael Strubell, among others.

Latest polls say 50.3% of Catalans want to call a referendum on independence regardless of whether the Spanish Government agrees. Indeed, if both parts fail to reach an agreement and the consultation takes place anyway, 43.3% would vote ‘yes’ to Catalonia’s independence. Another 22.2% would vote ‘no’ and 20.7% would abstain, according to the latest poll by the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO). In response to whether they would like to simply like referendum to be held in Catalonia, 73.3% of the surveyed answered ‘yes’. The CEO also noted that governing coalition Junts Pel Sí would win the Catalan elections again if they were held today. However, their influence in the parliament would decline from the 62 current MPs to 58 or 60. The other main pro-independence party in the chamber, the radical-left CUP, would also lose 2 MPS.

An ‘Early Day Motion’ on Catalonia’s right to hold a referendum has been presented this Thursday to the House of Commons. Titled ‘Democracy in Catalonia’ the petition calls on the British Government “to declare its adherence” to the right of “democratically elected parliamentarians to hold a referendum” in accordance with “the needs and wishes of their people”. Moreover, the petition reports that former Catalan President, Artur Mas, former Vice President, Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister for Education, Irene Rigau have been “levied heavy fines” and banned from public office for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014.  The signers, SNP MP George Kerevan, Northern Ireland SNDP MP Mark Durkan, and Plaid Cymru’s Hwyel Williams also note that 85% of Catalans, and 83 of the 135 Members of the Parliament of Catalonia support the option to vote democratically on Catalonia's constitutional future”.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) created in the British Parliament was officially inaugurated this Tuesday by the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva.  “This is what we would like other parliaments, such as the Spanish, to do,” Romeva told the press before entering the Committee Room. “Sometimes, there is more interest in discussing the Catalan question here than in Spain,” he added. SNP MP and Chairman of the APPG on Catalonia, George Kerevan admitted being “surprised” by the “large amount of people” who attended the presentation, including not only MPs and Peers but also “academics and many representatives from different sectors in the United Kingdom”. He lamented that the Catalan process hasn’t even “reached the negotiations table” and gave credit to the UK, which allowed the Scottish referendum “as a good example of dialogue”.

Catalan MEPs from left wing pro-independence party ERC Josep Maria Terricabras and Jordi Solé, and Ramon Tremosa, representing the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) sent a letter to the 751 members of the European Parliament condemning Monday’s sentence against former Catalan government figures over the 9-N symbolic vote on independence, which took place in Catalonia in 2014. They consider “disgraceful and anti-democratic” the sentencing to a two year-ban from holding public office for former Catalan President, Artur Mas and the 21-month and 18-month bans for former vice president Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister for Education Irene Rigau for allowing the non-binding referendum to take place. The Catalan MEPs assured in their joint letter that the court’s decision “will not deter the Catalans' will to express their views at the ballot box”.

Two Catalan researchers, Gemma Galdon and Isabel Trillas were amongst the finalists at EU Prize for Women Innovators 2017, an initiative promoted by the European Commission's Directorate General for Research and Innovation together with the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Galdon is a policy analyst working on the social, ethical and legal impacts of data-intensive technologies while Trillas is full Professor at the Faculty of Biology at Universitat de Barcelona and developed a pesticide based on a natural microorganism to control crop diseases. The ceremony, held on Women’s International Day at the European Parliament, awarded four European researchers for their outstanding contribution. They were Michela Magas, Petra Wadström, Claudia Gärtner and Kristina Tsvetanova.

The British Parliament has registered an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to discuss the political situation in Catalonia. The initiative will be made official on the 14th of March in London and includes 20 MPs from the main British parties, from Conservatives to Labour, all the way up to the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Welsh Plaid Cymru. Indeed, SNP MP George Kerevan was one of the main promoters of the group. Kerevan repeatedly expressed in favour of Catalonia’s right to decide its political future and criticised the prosecution of the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing a debate on Catalonia’s independence in the Catalan chamber. The group is due to meet at least twice per year and will be open for other MPs to join.

Former Catalan Minister for Presidency and Catalan European Democratic Party (PDCeCAT) spokesperson in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, testified before the Spanish Supreme Court this Monday over the 9-N symbolic vote on independence, which took place in 2014. Homs responded to the Public Prosecutor’s accusation of disobedience and perversion of justice for co-organising the consultation and insisted that the resolution from the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) “was not concrete”. Moreover, he assured that the executive “couldn’t do any anything else” but allow the symbolic vote to take place, since “ideological freedom and freedom of speech were at stake”. Homs said he admitted to “all the acts” he is accused of “and even more”, but doubted that they “constitute a crime”. In early February, former Catalan President, Artur Mas, and former Catalan Ministers Irene Rigau and Joana Ortega already testified before Barcelona’s High Court over the same case.

The European Union has a role to play in resolving the current stalemate in Catalonia, according to some of the MEPs that attended on Tuesday the Catalan President’s talk in the European Parliament. “This is a European issue, I have no doubt about that. Maybe some people are in denial”, said Social Democrat MEP from Portugal Ana Gomes. The Catalan request for a referendum on independence is “reasonable”, added the Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy, who was also in attendance at the conference. According to Renate Weber, a Liberal MEP from Romania, the issue should be solved through a democratic dialogue because, otherwise, “the international role will play a role”. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia and now MEP in Brussels, Ivo Vajgl, said that the idea of explaining the Catalan Government plans in the European Parliament was “excellent” because Europe needs information on the issue.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, urged the European Union to “be part of the solution” to the Catalan situation and engage in a conflict that has now become “a European problem”. In a packed room in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, Puigdemont said that Catalonia will celebrate a referendum on independence this year even if the Spanish government refuses to acknowledge it. The Catalan president highlighted the judicial process against pro-independence politicians and the “intransigence” of the Spanish executive, which has so far refused all Catalan calls to discuss the issue of an independence referendum. “About 80% of Catalans are in favour of calling a referendum, regardless of what their vote would be”, said Puigdemont, adding that a vote has been “a constant request” by Catalonia in recent years. “The issue at stake is not independence but democracy”, he warned.

Catalonia is seeking an agreement with Spain to celebrate an independence referendum but if Madrid continues to refuse to negotiate, the vote will go ahead anyway in 2017. This is the message that the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will send to the European Parliament in a conference on Tuesday evening that is expected to be attended by about 300 people, including MEPs, international journalists and diplomats. Puigdemont will be accompanied by his two most senior ministers: Vice President Oriol Junqueras and Minister of Foreign Affairs Raül Romeva, both former MEPs and both in charge of organising the referendum. The talk has caused a stir amongst Spanish unionist MEPs, who have urged their colleagues to avoid it. The leader of the Spanish People’s Party in the European Parliament, Esteban González Pons, wrote to all his Brussels colleagues saying that the referendum plans are “an unconstitutional act, which goes not only against Spain, but also against the deepest principles and values of the EU”. Puigdemont, said on Twitter that the so-called “dialogue operation” of the Spanish Government with Catalonia “has already arrived in Brussels”. In an ironic remark following González-Pons’ letter, the Catalan President regretted the Spanish People’s Party (PP) stance on the issue.

Catalan MEPs asked the new president of the European Parliament, the European People’s Party’s Antonio Tajani, to maintain his promise and make it possible for them to speak Catalan in the plenary. During the electoral campaign for the chamber presidency, Tajani said that he would use all his power to allow Catalan to be used in parliament “as soon as possible” if he receives a petition “from the national authorities”. In a letter written in this language, the Italian added that he would put “no obstacles” to introducing Catalan. His Catalan promise came after the socialist candidate, Gianni Pittella, the ECR candidate, Helga Stevens, and the Greens/EFA candidate, Jean Lambert, also promised to allow the use of Catalan in the European Parliament.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, the Vice President and Minister of Economy, Oriol Junqueras, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, will visit Brussels on the 24th of January to defend the Government plans to hold an independence referendum in 2017, the CNA has learnt. Puigdemont and his two more senior ministers, both of them former MEPs, will defend in the European Parliament Catalonia’s seeking of an agreement with the Spanish government to hold a legally binding referendum. However, they will point out that Madrid has repeatedly ruled out any discussion on the issue, arguing that a vote on independence is legally impossible. The Catalan President, the Vice President and the Foreign Affairs Minister will stress that Catalonia will celebrate the referendum even if Spain continues to refuse to engage in negotiation.