Política 15/12/2013

More questions than answers

Joan Rusiñol
1 min

There are still more questions than answers about the future of Catalonia in Brussels. So far, the representatives of the European Union have simply followed a crude script written to satisfy Madrid. However, the announcement of the date and content of the referendum has changed things. From this week on, the debate is firmly placed on the European media agenda and the accredited correspondents covering EU institutions are now taking a closer look at the issue and asking for more details. To avoid answering, the spokespeople of the Commission have focused on the fact that Madrid has not requested a legal review of the issue, a request that seems unlikely at the moment. Not even the UK government, which has agreed to a consultation in Scotland, has taken this step to discourage a victory for the yes vote. Consequently the executive of Jose Manuel Barroso merely states that it is an "internal issue" and, making a political reading of the treaties, says that a Catalan state would have to reapply for admission to the EU. But the questions only multiply. This week Europe refused to explain how it is possible to negotiate an accession agreement with Kosovo and, at the same time, make the future relations between Brussels and Barcelona conditional to a Spanish veto. Neither has Europe wanted to assess what Spain's new situation in the EU would be (its weight in the Council, the reduction in MEPs) nor think of possible solutions to a complex hypothetical situation, as it did in the case of Cyprus. This is probably because it is clear to the Commission that the eventual solution will be political and that they will have to listen to what the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg has to say about the matter.

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