Catalonia New State of Europe

GENERAL VICE SECRETARIAT
FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Catalonia, new state of Europe
Esquerra Republicana
and the process of independence
International presentation dossier
Contents
1 Summary .............................................................................................................. 3
2 What is Esquerra
Republicana de Catalonia? ............................................................... 3
Brief historical background ....................................................... 3
Principal ideological postulates ............................................ 3
Organisation of ERC
and representation in institutions ...................................... 3
International links ............................................................................... 3
3 Catalonia, a country of Europe .............................................. 3
What is Catalonia? ............................................................................. 3
Historical reference and evolution of
the relationship between Catalonia and Spain ..... 3
Catalan language and culture ................................................ 3
CataloniaEurope links ................................................................. 3
International policy ........................................................................... 3
4 The process of independence ................................................ 3
The political reasons ....................................................................... 3
The economic reasons .................................................................. 3
The reasons for the country form ..................................... 3
A people in movement .................................................................. 3
The institutional road (from 25N2012
to 9N2014): the democratic mandate ............................ 3
A fight for democracy: from
self-determination to the right to decide ................... 3
Catalonia a new state of Europe ......................................... 3
5 For further information ................................................................... 3
6 Contact information ............................................................................. 3
International
presentation dossier
International presentation dossier Esquerra Republicana 3
1 Summary
Esquerra Republicana is a party which pursues the
independence of Catalonia and social justice, therefo-
re aspiring to building a free and socially just society
by creating a modern welfare state.
Catalonia is a nation, but is not recognised sovereignty.
300 years after the defeat of 1714, which resulted in
the disappearance of the Catalan state, Catalonia ne-
eds to become independent once more. The Catalans
want to have their own voice in Europe and in the
world, for this is the only way to be recognised as the
people they are.
In 2014 it was also 75 years since the Francoist troops
entered Barcelona in a preview to 40 years of repres-
sion and dictatorship. In ERC, we are the inheritors
of the Republicans who fought Francos fascism for
freedom, democracy and social justice. Neither the
dictatorships nor the repression, nor the pseudo-de-
mocratic traps have managed to erase the Catalan
peoples national will.
Despite the establishment of a democratic system, the
Spanish state has been totally incapable of creating a
framework for truly plurinational coexistence respectful
of diversity. Even the federal proposals have produced
almost unanimous rejection from outside Catalonia.
The Spanish states dilapidation of the Statute of
Autonomy in 2010 was the detonator of the present
movement in favour of sovereignty, an internatio-
nally unprecedented popular movement capable of
mobilising more than one and a half million people in
the north and south of the country. The unequivocally
democratic, civic, peaceful and constructive demand
of the Catalan people has repeatedly been shown
to the eyes of the international community, now no
longer capable of looking away.
The very serious economic and social crisis has
revealed an unacceptable tax deficit. Between 2006
and 2010, Catalonia contributed an annual average of
16,000 million euros to the state in the form of taxes
which were not returned. Between 1986 and 2009, the
average tax deficit amounted to 8.1% of the Catalan
GDP. Such resource transfer figures find no compa-
rison in any other country or region of the world and,
for instance, widely exceed Germanys contribution to
the European Union.
This tax deficit is a consequence of an unbalanced poli-
tical relationship in which the citizens of Catalonia are
considered a permanent minority in the Spanish state
without legal mechanisms or the possibility or capacity
to decide. Catalonia has no real guarantees to defend
its self-government, as is demonstrated by the Spanish
governments present recentralising ofensive.
Many citizens of Catalonia believe that independence
is the only economic, social and political solution today.
The Catalan National Assembly and the whole of the
social movement in favour of the right to decide have
been capable of bringing in people of diferent ideolo-
gies and origins with the will to build a common object.
This civic and democratic project can be but socially
and culturally inclusive, and therefore bases its legi-
timacy on the right to decide, that is, the right of the
citizens of Catalonia to freely decide on their collective
political future.
Esquerra Republicana is a radically democratic party
which supports the independence referendum of 9
November 2014. ERC will accept the result and is
convinced that the Spanish state, the European Union
and the international community will also accept it by
virtue of the democratic principle.
Catalonia historically and inseparably forms and will
form part of Europe. By origin, conviction and will, it is
a deeply Europe-facing country which believes in the
European project. Catalonia therefore wishes to contri-
bute constructively to building Europe, by providing
its culture, vitality, efort and creativity from its own
identity without impositions or intermediaries.
2 What is Esquerra
Republicana
de Catalunya?
Brief historical background
The beginnings and the Republic
Esquerra Republicana is a left-wing party which de-
fends the independence of the Catalan nation and so-
cial justice. Founded in 1931, throughout its more than
80 years of history it has experienced very diferent
fortunes in parallel to the recent history of Catalonia
and the whole of the Catalan Lands, or Pasos Cata-
lans (Catalonia, Northern Catalonia, Valencia Region,
Balearic Islands and the Western Strip).
The origins of Esquerra Republicana lie in the repu-
blican and federal movement of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. The way in which Catalan society
transformed in the 19th century as a result of the In-
dustrial Revolution caused the appearance of the first
democratic and republican progressist and federalist
social movements. At the same time, the Renaissance
cultural and literary movement of the early 19th-cen-
tury started the development of a national awareness
closely followed by European Romanticism. Politically,
the federal republican Congress in 1883 and the
establishment of the Bases of Manresa in 1892 were
the first two Catalan political movements with clearly
national intentions.
In March 1931, at the end of Primo de Riveras
dictatorship, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
(ERC) appeared as a confluence of the nationalist
and left-wing sectors aiming to form a common front
before a Spanish state contrary to the interests of the
Catalan popular classes and blocked in the past. The
new party presided by Francesc Maci resulted from
the union of Estat Catal, the Partit Republic Catal
and the group Opini, and played a central role in the
establishment of the Republic in Catalonia and Spain.
The most important elements of the ideas behind
the new party were the recognition of Catalonia as
a nation, the defence of the individual rights of man
and the redistribution of wealth, whereas the social
programme defended full union freedom, the right to
strikes, the defence of minimum salaries, the eight-
hour working day, compulsory holidays, insurance and
retirements as well as work schools.
In the municipal elections of April 1931, ERC was
victorious in Catalonia and Francesc Maci proclai-
med the Catalan Republic. The republican forces won
throughout the state, with which Maci negotiated the
new self-government of Catalonia. Maci agreed to
restore the Generalitat de Catalunya, the name of the
institution of Catalan government suppressed in 1714,
and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy was approved,
which included some of the institutions of selfgo-
vernment lost by Catalonia in the War of Succession
(1705-1714).
In the years of the Republic (1931-1939), ERC was
overwhelming the majority party in Catalonia and won
all of the elections that were held. Francesc Maci
died in 1933 and was succeeded by Llus Companys
as the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, or
Government of Catalonia. Companys proclaimed the
Catalan state in 1934 in a context of involution of the
Spanish right wing and risk of a military coup. As a
result, Companys was imprisoned and the Generalitat
was abolished, until the victory of the Front dEsquer-
res in 1936 brought him out of prison.
The Civil War and the dictatorship
Though failing in Catalonia, the uprising of the
Spanish military against the democratic order of the
Second Republic started the Spanish Civil War (1936-
1939). During these years, Llus Companys was the
President of the Generalitat and ERC played a key
role in the Generalitat government along with other
political and social forces.
The victory of General Francos troops brought the war
to an end and started a bloody dictatorship inspired
in fascism. President Llus Companys was arrested
by the Gestapo in France and handed over to the
Spanish government, which put him before the firing
squad on the mountain of Montjuc in October 1940 in
an unprecedented action. He is the only president of a
democratically elected government in the world ever
to be executed.
Esquerra Republicana sufered the repression of the
Francoist dictatorship (19391975) just like the whole
of Catalan society. Half of the 70,000 ERC militants
sought exile and a quarter were imprisoned, executed
or killed in the war. ERC set up the government in
exile and maintained a very small clandestine activity
in Catalonia, consisting of participating in all united
initiatives of opposition to the dictatorship.
In a more minority manner, in the seventies the first
formulae appeared of a modern Marxist independen-
ce movement inspired in the colonial national freedom
movements. These tendencies ended up shaping
numerous independentist and leftwing organisations
of diferent political shades which came together to
form Esquerra Republicana in the nineties.
The transition and autonomy
The severity of the political and social repression
and the demographic, social and economic changes
experienced by Catalan society virtually caused the
disappearance of the party. In 1977, in the first elec-
tions after the dictatorship, ERC was not able to take
part directly as it had not been legalised. In Catalonia
and throughout the Spanish state, a new system of
parties appeared and ERC played a very small role
in comparison with the hegemony of the 1930s. The
new political forces drew up and defended a Spanish
constitution against which ERC voted because it failed
to accept the republican principles or the peoples
right to self-determination.
The so-called Spanish democratic transition consisted
of an agreement between the remains of Francoism
and the democratic opposition. The Francoist regime
was not oficially condemned, even though it had
risen up against the democratic regime of the Second
Republic. There was no recognition of the victims of
the dictatorial repression and nobody has yet to be
judged for the crimes committed by Francoism or for
its breach of individual and collective human rights.
The most flagrant example appears in the trial of
President Companys, which the Spanish state has
repeatedly refused to annul. In addition to expressing
a total lack of procedural guarantees, the very brief
war trial which condemned him to the firing squad
was a condemnation of democracy and the whole of
the Catalan people. At the end of 2013, ERC brought a
suit against the Spanish state before Argentine justice,
accusing it of crimes against humanity for the assassi-
nation of the president of the Republican Generalitat
government. The lawsuit was admitted and a further
200 suits were added for those murdered by the
Francoist regime. The ignorance of historical memory
was one of the basic features of the transition agree-
ment, unlike the processes of historical review made in
Germany, Italy and South Africa.
With President Tarradellass return from exile, the
Generalitat government was restored and a new
statute of autonomy was drawn up for Catalonia.
ERC opposed the text as something which gave little
support to autonomy, but ended up defending the
yes vote in the referendum. In the first elections to the
Catalan Parliament after the dictatorship, ERC achi-
eved 14 of the 135 members, although in successive
elections it fell of severely and lost its representation
in the Chambers of Madrid. The centre-right wing
Convergncia i Uni, which has won all of the Catalan
elections, led the creation and consolidation of the
autonomic institutions through agreements with the
diferent governments of Madrid.
In the 1990s, ERC strengthened its position as an
independentist party by proposing the creation of an
independent state as part of Europe. Gathering toget-
her the diferent political sectors of the independentist
movement, it progressively increased its electoral
weight and was consolidated as the third political
force behind the central-right wing Convergncia i
Uni (CiU) and the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalonia
(PSCPSOE) Socialist party. On the municipal level, it
also achieved a broad representation of councillors
and mayors throughout Catalonia.
In the late 1990s, the independentist discourse took
on a greater social slant, reaching new social sectors
previously removed from the party. This brought ERC
up to 545,000 votes and 23 members in the Catalan
parliament, the best result since the Republic. At the
same time, the partys decisive position enabled the
creation of the first Catalanist and left-wing govern-
ment since the Republic along with the Partit dels
Socialistes de Catalonia (PSC-PSOE) and Iniciativa
per Catalonia-Verds (ICV) parties. It was also in 2003
when Esquerra Republicana del Pas Valenci (ERPV)
appeared locally in the Valencia Region and achieved
its first councillors in Sueca, Xixona and Barxeta.
In Catalonia, the so-called tripartit (threeparty) go-
vernment put forward a broad social programme whose
main goal was the reformation of the Catalan Statute of
Autonomy and the financing system of the Generalitat
government. ERC played a decisive role in this govern-
ment and held several ministries (Education, Welfare
and Family, Trade, Governance, Universities, and others).
When the Catalan parliament approved the Statute
with a broad consensus, the agreement between the
CiU and the PSOE in Madrid had it considerably cur-
tailed on its way through the Spanish governmental
process. In the referendum for its approval, ERC called
for a vote against it, bringing the party out of the
government and causing early elections.
Though losing votes, Esquerra Republicana achieved
an important result in these elections (416,000 votes
and 21 seats) and the progress pact was repeated
with PSC-PSOE and ICV-EUiA. In the following electi-
ons in 2010, the electorate punished the ERC, which
lost almost half of its votes with respect to 2006
(219,000) and eleven seats and these results were
repeated in the diferent elections. CiU returned to the
Generalitat government after 7 years in the opposition.
At the same time, in 2007, Esquerra Republicana
took part in association in the autonomic elections in
the Balearic Islands; in Majorca with PSM, IU and Els
Verds and in Ibiza with PSOE, IU and ENE. In addition
to several municipal representatives, these elections
gave Esquerra Republicana a representative in the
Parliament of the Balearic Islands and an elected
Councillor in the Majorca Council (Consell de Mallor-
ca). The forces of progress achieved a majority that
enabled several Esquerra Republicana representatives
to be in the autonomic government, the government
of the Consell de Mallorca and the government of Pal-
ma. In December 2009, Esquerra Republicana left the
government of the island of Majorca when its partners
broke the pact of government and the code of ethics
approved by the forces of progress, when corruption
afected one of its associates.
The process towards independence
With the arrival of Oriol Junqueras as the President
of Esquerra Republicana in 2011, a new stage of unity
was started in which Esquerra Republicana works with
civil society to achieve the objective of Catalan inde-
pendence. The enormous demonstration on 11 Sep-
tember 2012 in Barcelona, organised by the Catalan
National Assembly, triggered the calling of elections
on 25 November and started a new stage marked by
the right to decide on the political agenda.
Esquerra Republicana obtained 496,000 votes in
these elections and became the second block in the
Parliament with 21 seats. These results made Oriol
Junqueras the head of the opposition and allowed an
agreement to be signed with CiU to give parliamentary
support to the government of Artur Mas. The main aim
of this agreement is to call a popular consultation for
self-determination in 2014 and to bring social change
into the policy of economic austerity of the Generalitat.
Principal ideological postulates
Esquerra Republicana proposes the building of an
independent state for the Catalan nation as part of
Europe and the achievement of a fairer and more
supportive society without inequalities between peo-
ple and territories.
Esquerra Republicana defines itself as a non-dogmatic
republican, democratic and left-wing party focused on
the defence of pluralism, human rights and the rights
of peoples and the environment. Esquerra Republica-
na is the principal party on the national left wing and
has never depended on political forces from outside
the Catalan nation.
Left
From an economic and social viewpoint, Esquerra
Republicana bases its ideology and political action
on defending the interests of the productive sectors
and popular classes. Workers, liberal professionals, the
self-employed, small and mediumsized companies,
farmers, fishermen, etc. are all the basis of the produc-
tive economy so basic for a countrys development.
Esquerra Republicana watches out for the productive
economy while respecting the individual and collec-
tive fruit of work. On the other hand, the speculative
and financial economy must be controlled by the
state so that they might remain at the service of the
productive economy.
In the very dificult situation of the present crisis, it is
necessary to maintain the welfare state and to defend
the social advances achieved in the 20th century. The
welfare state cannot be limited to assistentialism and
to managing capitalism, but must also contribute to
distributing wealth. The public sector must assume the
essential public services in order to compensate the
social inequalities and to guarantee the operation of
the economy at the service of most of the population.
Esquerra Republicana also defends a change in the
model of production and consumption that respects
the planets ecological limits and is acceptable to
all communities living there. Eficiency in the use of
energy and natural resources, reduction of waste and
the preservation of biodiversity are the basic political
goals in the area of sustainable development.
Republic
Esquerra Republicana defends the republican form of
state because it is the best guarantee for the exercise
of democracy and legitimating power. Democratic
quality and participatory democracy form an intrinsic
part of republican values.
Esquerra Republicana understands democracy as the
permanent commitment to deepen in the participation
of citizens in the collective decisionmaking. It is there-
fore necessary to transform the present representative
democracy into a democracy that also has mecha-
nisms for direct participation. The exercise of demo-
cracy from the local level is inherent to such goals.
Despite the theoretical recognition of individual rights,
broad sectors of society see themselves violated
for reasons of sex, sexual orientation, age, disabi-
lity, illness, language, culture, ethnic group, opinion,
religion, nationality or for other reasons. It is therefore
necessary to go further in defending the rights of all
people and against any form of discrimination. Only
from equal opportunities for one and all and nondis-
crimination can a true democracy be built.
Independence
Esquerra Republicana proposes the creation of an
independent state for the Catalan nation as part of
Europe and through the peaceful and democratic
exercise of the right to selfdetermination.
The achievement of a state is a necessary tool for
achieving maximum economic wellbeing and social
justice for the majority of citizens. In this sense, the tax
imbalance between the Catalan nation and the Spa-
nish state and the fact that it is impossible to access
the resources produced by the citizens of the Catalan
Lands prevent these objectives from being achieved.
The Catalan nation is formed by diferent political sub-
jects whose historical and social nature, with their own
institutions and states of awareness, has meant that
they work at diferent rates. Just as Esquerra Republi-
cana proposes the right of the people of Catalina to
decide to form an independent republic, it also propo-
ses the application of the right to decide to Northern
Catalonia and each of the Balearic Islands regarding
their adhesion to the future Republic of Catalonia.
Esquerra Republicana also defends the creation of a
Pas Valenci state that would end up federating with
the other territories in order to form a federal-type re-
public (Northern Catalonia in France, Valencia Region
and Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera).
Faithful to its republican tradition, Esquerra Republi-
cana conceives the Catalan nation as a civic space
which bases its bonding on its will to be and on the
project of a shared future. Therefore, in the case of
Catalonia, all people living in Catalonia and who want
to be Catalans are considered Catalan, regardless of
their place of birth, the language they speak, their
family origin, ethnic group or religion.
In sections 3 and 4 of this report, we focus on the
political process currently taking place in Catalonia.
Organisation of Esquerra
Republicana and representation
in institutions
President of Esquerra Republicana: Oriol Junqueras
Secretary General: Marta Rovira
National Congress: the sovereign body of the party
formed by all militants. This is held every four years
and sets the party line. It chooses the Presidency, the
Secretary General, the vice secretary generals and the
national secretaries.
National Council: the top decisionmaking body
between congresses, it adjusts the party policy according
to the line established by the previous National Congress.
National Conference: this updates the political
strategy approved by the last National Congress or
the last National Conference.
National Executive: the daily direction and adminis-
tration of the party, meeting once a fortnight.
National Permanent: takes emergency decisions
when the other bodies are unable to meet.
In the territorial area, Esquerra Republicana is
organised with a structure expressed through local
sections, local regional and regional federations.
The territorial federations are the decision-making
bodies in Valencia, the Balearic and Pitises islands,
as well as northern Catalonia. All of the militants form
part of these bodies.
On the sector level, there are national secretaries
of specific areas which have the support of sector
commissions.
Institutional representation
of Esquerra Republicana
After seven years of left-wing government in Catalonia,
ERC sufered a considerable fall which led the party
to lose a great deal of representation in the munici-
pal areas, in the Parliament of Catalonia and in the
Spanish Congress.
In the Catalan Parliamentary elections of 2012, ERC re-
covered a very large part of these lost votes and was
placed as the second force in terms of the number of
elected representatives.
Parliament of Catalonia (2012)
Seats: 21; votes: 498,124 (13.7%)
Congress of ministers (2011)
Ministers: 3; votes: 244,854 (7%)
Municipal areas (2011)
Councillors: 1,399; mayors: 401; votes: 271,349 (9.3%)
In Valencia, Esquerra Republicana has 10 councillors
and 16 in the Balearic Islands.
1 Approximate.
International links
Esquerra Republicana is faithful to the Europea-
nist tradition of political Catalanism and wishes to
contribute to building the European project because
it believes deeply in the values of democracy, equality,
peace and solidarity. Esquerra Republicana works
for a cohered Europe that reduces the weight of the
states and deepens in its democracy.
Since the 1990s, Esquerra Republicana has therefore
worked considerably in the international area, focused
on promoting peoples right to self-determination and
recognising stateless nations such as Catalonia. It has
woven a network of relationships with other European
parties of stateless nations that share the same natio-
nal and social objectives.
Esquerra Republicana is a member of the European
Free Alliance, the European political party working to
make reality of the Europe of Peoples. The EFA gat-
hers more than 40 progressist nationalist, regionalist
and autonomist parties representing stateless nations,
regions and national minorities in Europe. These parti-
es include the Scottish National Party, the Welsh Plaid
Cymru, Partitu di a Nazione Corsa (Corsica) and the
Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (Flanders). From the Spanish
State there is the Bloque Nacionalista Galego (Galicia)
and Eusko Alkartasuna (Basque Country), with which
ERC has historically maintained a strong relationship.
The principal activity of the European Free Alliance
is to work on recognising nations right to self-deter-
mination, human, civil and political rights, the internal
expansion of the EU, the devolution of powers and the
cultural and linguistic diversity of the European Union.
The European Free Alliance forms part of the Gre-
ens/European Free Alliance Parliamentary group,
the fourth force in the European Parliament. In the
present legislature, Oriol Junqueras held a seat from
2009 to 2011.
The Esquerra Republicana Vice-Secretary General for
International Relations, Jordi Sol, is Secretary General
of the European Free Alliance.
3 Catalonia,
a country of Europe.
What is Catalonia?
The Catalan nation has been formed over the course
of times with the energy of many generations, many
traditions and cultures who in it have found a land of
welcome. Catalonia has defined a language and cultu-
re, it has shaped the countryside, it has also welcomed
other languages and other cultural manifestations, it
has always been open to generous exchange and has
built a system of rights and freedoms, it has crea-
ted its own laws and has developed a framework of
supportive coexistence aspiring to social justice.2
Todays diverse and open Catalan society shares a
common culture and shapes a distinct nation based
not on ethnic trades but on the fact of belonging to
a community with similar interests, problems and
aspirations. Like other European nations, the Catalan
identity is structured around its own language, Cata-
lan, and a shared history.
2 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (2005), proposed reformation
approved by 90% of the Parliament of Catalonia.
Basic data
Geographical location: north-east
of the Iberian peninsular
Capital: Barcelona
Population: 7,565,603 inhabitants (2012)
Population density: 232 inhab/km
2
(2011)
Surface area: 32,107 km
2
GDP: 207,762 million euros (2012)
Per capita GDP: 27,698 euros (2012)
Unemployment rate: 22.8% (2013)
Immigration rate: 15.7% (2011)
Life expectancy: 81
Government: Generalitat de Catalunya
Official languages: Catalan and Spanish,
Occitan in the Vall dAran
Setting: (http://www.manelpalencia.com/tag/europa/)
The Catalan economy
Catalonias location in the Iberian peninsula and on
the Mediterranean has formed a specific economic
model diferent from the Spanish. From the rise of Ca-
talan trade in the Mediterranean in the 13th century to
the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuri-
es, the Catalan economy evolved diferently from the
Castilian and the Spanish, which grew on the back of
the state and public powers with which it was strongly
related both in the past and the present.
Catalonia accounts for 20% of the Spanish GDP, 24%
of its industry and 26% of its exports, even though it
only has 16% of the Spanish population. The industrial
leader of the Spanish state, Catalonia has a great in-
dustrial weight particularly in the chemical, food, metal
and car industries.
The Catalan economic model has always been dife-
rent from the Spanish. Small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) account for 99% of the Catalan business fabric,
with great industrial diversification. It is also particular-
ly necessary to highlight the presence of multinational
companies from many diferent sectors, and especially
industry. Companies like Basf and Dow Chemicals
have announced that they would stay in Catalonia
regardless of the result of the process.
Catalonia is the third-largest region in the EU-15 in
the attraction of direct foreign investment, and 12th in
the world. With 5 million inhabitants, the metropolitan
area of Barcelona is the fifth largest of the European
Union. Barcelona is also in sixth place in favourite
cities for doing business after London, Paris, Frankfurt,
Amsterdam and Berlin (2011). It is also considered
one of the cities with the best future and the weight
of its brand is only exceeded by Paris and London.
These opinions are mainly due to the quality of life, its
privileged geographic location and the existence of a
powerful and diversified industry.
In Europe, Catalonia is a medium-sized economy, in
12th place on the total GDP ranking (2012 data) and
ninth in terms of per capita GDP (2010). The weight
of exports increased by 41% from 2009 to 2012. In
2012, Catalonia exported more to the world than the
rest of Spain (54.3% and 45.7% respectively).
Since the 1960s, tourism has grown into one of the
most outstanding economic activities in Catalonia.
This phenomenon has consolidated the commercial
and service activity. Initially focused on sun and beach
tourism on the Costa Brava and the Costa Daurada,
modern tourism has diversified. In 2013, Catalonia
received 15.6 million foreign tourists, 25% of those
coming to the Spanish state and 8% more than in
2012. Whats more, Barcelona port is now the largest
in Europe in terms of cruise liners and Barcelona is
the leading city in the world in terms of participants at
congresses and meetings.
In recent years, as in the rest of the Spanish state, the
real estate and debt crises have had a very strong
impact on all economic sectors. Construction, which
before the crisis had acquired a great economic and
occupational weight, fell drastically. This has directly
or indirectly afected the remaining sectors of the
economy and is causing significant social problems,
with unemployment running at 22.8% at the end of
2013 and increased inequality with a poverty not seen
since the post-war.
The most important economic indicators referring to
2012 are presented below.
Gross Domestic product. 2012
Value (million ) Variation (%)
2010 2011 2012 2010 2011 2012
Catalonia 205,315 208,948 207,762 0.3 0.5 1.3
Spain 1,045,620 1,046,327 1,029,002 0.2 0.1 1.6
EU 12,337,022 12,711,584 12,967,811 2 1.7 0.4
Source: Idescat
Per capita GDP. 2012
Value (million )
2010 2011 2012
Catalunya 27,682 28,102 27,698
Espaa 22,700 22,700 22,300
Unin Europea 24,400 25,100 25,500
Source: Idescat
Political data
Today Catalonia is an autonomous community within
the Spanish state according to the Spanish cons-
titution of 1978 and the new statute of autonomy
approved in 2006. The Generalitat is the institutional
system in which Catalonia is politically organised and
dates back to 1359. It is formed by the Parliament,
the Presidency, the Government and other institu-
tions of selfgovernment such as the Ombudsman
and the Public Audit Ofice.
The Generalitat has exclusive or shared competen-
cies in areas such as education, health, citizen safety
and civil protection, culture, linguistic policy, industry,
urban development, housing, territorial policy, trans-
port, the environment and others. Catalonia also has
its own police force, the Mossos dEsquadra. In legal
terms, the historical Catalan civil law is applied, which
can only be modified by the Generalitat.
The Catalan parliament is one of the oldest in Europe,
dating back to 1283 when it was formed by the clergy,
the nobility and the representatives of the countrys
towns. The Catalan Courts, made up of three houses,
are considered a truly mediaeval parliament.
The present Parliament, which was restored in 1980,
represents the people of Catalonia. As an institution
of direct democratic representation, it has supreme
authority and is the most important institution of the
Generalitat. It has one independent and inviolable
chamber.
Unlike the Spanish Congress of Members, the Catalan
political party system has more parties with a signi-
ficant representation and, in addition to the habitual
positioning between left and right, the parties are
positioned with respect to the relationship between
Catalonia and Spain. There are currently seven parties
represented in the Parliament of Catalonia:
Convergncia i Uni (CiU): with 50 seats, this forms
the government in a parliamentary minority thanks to
the Stability Agreement with ERC. It is a centreright
coalition formed by a Liberal party (CDC) and a
democratic, Christian party (UDC). The coalition is in
favour of creating a Catalan state and is promoting a
referendum in Catalonia to decide its future.
Esquerra Republicana (ERC): has 21 seats and is
the leading force of the opposition. It is a leftwing
Economic sectors,
foreign trade and prices. 2012
Catalonia Spain EU-27
Gross added value
(million ) 191,476 944,219 11,576,196.2
Agriculture (%) 1 2.5 1.7
Industry (%) 20.9 17.4 19.1
Construction (%) 8.5 8.6 5.9
Services (%) 69.6 71.6 73.4
Foreign trade (million )
Imports 70,323.9 260,577 1,791,618
Exports 58,880.7 228,782 1,686,295
CPI. Annual
variation (%) 2.9 2.4 2.6
Source: Idescat
Indicadores
de trabajo. 2012
Catalonia Spain EU-27
Active population
(1.000) 3,735.2 23,051.0 243,595.6
Tasa de actividad (%) 61.5 59.3 57.7
Men 67.6 66.2 64.8
Women 55.8 52.9 51.0
Employed population
(1.000) 2,889.20 17,282 217,510.70
Agriculture (%) 1.9 4.2 5.2
Industry and
construction (%) 25.1 19.2 22.7
Services (%) 73 76.6 72.1
Unemployment
rate (%) 22.7 25 10.5
Men 23.2 24.7 10.4
Women 22.1 25.4 10.6
>25s 50.7 53.2 23
Source: Idescat
party in favour of independence and is calling for a
referendum to decide the political future of Catalonia.
Partit dels Socialistes de Catalonia (PSC): this
party currently has 20 seats, although it has been the
main force in the opposition since 1980. It is federa-
ted with the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)
and promotes a reformation of the Spanish constitu-
tion of 1978 so that it might become a federal state.
It is against the process to consult the population on
the independence of Catalonia agreed by the rest of
the parties.
Partido Popular (PP): with 19 seats, this is a right-
wing party in favour of the unity of Spain and is the
party governing Spain with an absolute majority. The
PP is against holding a popular consultation in Catalo-
nia and making any change to the Spanish constitution.
Iniciativa per Catalonia VerdsEsquerra Unida i
Alternativa (ICV-EUiA): this has 13 seats. It is a le-
ft-wing ecologist coalition in favour of the referendum
on the political future of Catalonia.
CiutadansPartido de la Ciudadana (Cs): this
party has 9 seats. It came into the Parliament of Cata-
lonia in 2006 and focuses its discourse on defending
the unity of Spain and against the popular consul-
tation concerning the future of Catalonia. It attracts
voters from the right and left thanks to a discourse
based on identity.
Candidatura dUnitat PopularAlternativa
dEsquerres (CUP): with 3 seats, it came into the
Parliament for the first time in 2012. It is an alterna-
tive leftwing party in favour of the independence
of Catalonia and has given support to the present
process for making a public consultation on the future
of Catalonia.
President Artur Mas i Gabarr is the 129th President
of the Generalitat de Catalunya. As the head of the
government, he leads the executive and directs the
governmental action. The Govern de Catalunya
cabinet is formed by 12 ministers who deal with the
economy and knowledge, education, health, infras-
tructures, enterprise and innovation, the environment,
food and agriculture, justice and social afairs.
Following the restoration of the Generalitat in 1980,
the government was run for 23 years by Jordi Pujol
(CiU), initially in coalition and later in an absolute ma-
jority, ending with a minority up to 2003. After 2003
a coalition of left wing parties (PSC, ERC, ICV) took
government and continued after the 2006 elections.
After the elections in 2010, CiU formed a minority
government with the external support of the PP.
Following the early elections in 2012, it allied with ERC
on the commitment to promote the popular consulta-
tion on the future of Catalonia.
Electoral trends in the Parliament of Catalonia since 1992
Historical reference and evolution
of the relationship between
Catalonia and Spain
Catalonia is a nation historically forged with the inde-
pendence of the Catalan counties from the Carolingi-
an empire and the creation of the crown of Aragon. Al-
though the concept of nation appears centuries later,
in the 13th century it is already possible to talk about
the human community with relationships of solidarity
and common cultural and linguistic traits. The histori-
an Pierre Vilar said, Language, territory, economic life,
psychic formation, community of culture: the funda-
mental conditions of the nation are already perfectly
gathered in the 13th century.
The descendants of Guifr el Pels, considered the
founder of Catalonia, united the county house of
Barcelona with the kingdom of Aragon and after
1164, Alfons II started the jurisdiction of the crown of
Aragon, which lasted until 1715. This dynastic union
was expressed over the centuries by a federation of
mediaeval states which respected the singularities of
each territory and developed a similar political struc-
ture (Courts, Generalitats and Constitutions).
With the Catalan kings, the crown of Aragon pros-
pered and expanded until its territories embraced
Majorca, Valencia, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Naples.
The crown thus became a military and commercial
empire in the Mediterranean. The dynastic union of
the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile with the Catholic
Kings in 1479 did not suppose a loss of the institutions
or of its own organisation.
After the catholic kings, the dynasty of the Austrias
maintained the Catalan institutions even though there
were severe diferences with the Crown. The disagre-
ements reached their peak in the War of the Reapers
(1640-1652). Catalonia lost Roussillon and part of the
Cerdanya region in the conflict, which were taken over
by France. Although it returned to Spanish obedience,
the King of Spain respected the Catalan institutions.
When Carlos II died without descendants, Felipe V of
the Bourbons took over the Spanish throne. In 1701
he swore the Catalan constitutions, but the existence
of another pretender, Charles of Austria, triggered the
War of Succession, an international conflict in which
all European powers took part and in which 1,200,000
people died.
Catalonia took sides with the Austriacists and in
1705 a war started which would last until the fall of
Barcelona in 1714, after which the allies abandoned
the Catalans to the Spanish and French armies. The
defeat had terrible consequences on Catalonia, with
thousands of victims and exiles and the denial of any
sign of the Catalan nation. The repression carried out
by Felipe V applied methods of extermination and
control which have continued in modern dictatorships.
All Catalans were declared in rebellion and the Catalan
denationalisation process supposed the annihilation
of dissidents, economic devastation and political and
institutional submission.
The defeat in 1714 supposed the end of Catalonias
own legal and political organisation, the attempted
cultural and linguistic genocide and imposition of an
absolutist regime.
During the 19th century, the Spanish nation state was
formed based on the character and form of Castile,
which was imposed across the state. At this time, basic
aspects were defined such as the territorial division
into provinces, the establishment of the Spanish flag
and national anthem and the introduction of the pro-
vincial councils as local administrative entities under
the control of the central power.
In Catalonia, signs began to appear of cultural and
patriotic afirmation, which came out in the diferent
forms of political Catalanism until the end of the 19th
century. The creation of the Mancomunitat in 1914
was the practical expression of this movement and
the first element of self-government since 1714. This
institution aimed to build a modern Catalonia similar
to Europe, based on industrialisation and science, the
improvement of infrastructures, the popularisation of
culture and other social policies. Its governing work
continues still today, with prestigious institutions such
as the Library of Catalonia, the Catalonia Meteoro-
logical Service, the Cartographic Institute and the
Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat railway system.
Primo de Riveras dictatorship from 1920 to 1930
suppressed the Mancomunitat and once more
brought about the persecution of the Catalan insti-
tutions, language and culture, together with a severe
social repression of the popular movements.
With the establishment of the Republic in 1932, a
democratic period was started which allowed the
Generalitat to be recovered and a certain degree of
self-government with the Statute of Autonomy of
Catalonia. The conception of freedom, modernity and
laicism that impregnated all social areas was set out in
the work of the government and the policies carried
out. Similarly, the juridical and legal structure of the
Generalitat was defined which is still applied today,
with competencies in education, territorial division,
justice, public works, civil law, etc.
The Spanish Civil War (19361939) and the Francoist
dictatorship once more supposed the elimination of
the Catalan institutions and the severe repression of
all supposedly Catalanist or left wing social and politi-
cal organisations. Thousands of Catalans and Spanish
Republicans were executed, imprisoned or had to flee
into exile. The persecution of the Catalan language
and culture occurred on all levels. The whole of the
Catalan intellectual class had to go into exile, the
use of the Catalan language in public was forbidden
and even all of the families had to give their children
Castilian names. The role of the exile was outstanding
and kindled the flame of Catalan culture and even the
institutions until the end of the dictatorship.
The immigrations in the 50s, 60s and 70s supposed
the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from
other areas of the Spanish state to work. This pheno-
menon strongly shaped Catalan society in a context
of dictatorship which prohibited any expression of
Catalan culture.
After the 60s, the opposition movements gained in
strength and brought together groups of diferent
ideological tendencies, from communism to the Chris-
tian Catalanist movements. All of these forces had
Catalanism as a minimum common denominator.
After the death of Franco, the so-called democratic
transition set up a parliamentary monarchy with a
constitution that established Spain as a democratic
state in law. The arrival of President Josep Tarradellas
from exile supposed the recovery of the Generali-
tat, maintaining the institutions historical continuity.
In 1980, the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was
approved and would remain in force until 2006. This
Statute allowed the development of selfgovernment
and the recovery of the Catalan language and culture
with the exercise of its own competencies in health,
education, culture, infrastructures, etc.
With the economic growth in the first decade of the
new century, Catalonia received more than a million
people from outside the Spanish state (Africa, South
America, Asia and the rest of Europe) in a phenome-
non that changed Catalan social reality and was a
great challenge on social cohesion.
25 years after its approval, the Catalan parties agreed
to update the basic regulation governing the country.
After a conflictive negotiation process, the new
Statute was approved by referendum in 2006, largely
curtailed firstly by the Spanish Congress and later by
the Constitutional Court.
As it was impossible to introduce reforms in the rela-
tionship with the State, the right to decide has gained
force in recent years. The organisations of civil society
have taken the lead and were, along with the parties,
capable of mobilising more than a million people on 11
September 2012 and 2013. In the elections of Novem-
ber 2012, a large majority of citizens chose the political
forces in favour of calling for a popular consultation to
decide the political future of Catalonia.
Fulfilling this electoral mandate, the Parliament of Ca-
talonia in January of this year approved the call for a
consultation on the independence of Catalonia on the
coming 9 November. The Parliament has taken the
necessary steps so that this process might be done
with the utmost of guarantees and in accordance with
current legal ordinance.
Catalan language and culture
The Catalan language was formed between the 8th
and 10th centuries as an evolution of Latin, just like
Spanish, French, Italian and the other Romanic langua-
ges. Every year, 10,000 titles are published in Catalan,
the 10th most widely translated language in the world,
and which is taught in 166 universities.
The Catalan language is oficial in Catalonia, Valencia
(under the name of Valencian), in the Balearic Islands,
in the Eastern Strip (part of Aragon) and Andorra. It
is also spoken in the South of France and in the city
of lAlguer (Sardinia). It is estimated that there are
around 9 million people who speak it in the world and
11 million who understand it; this places it ahead of
another 14 oficial languages of the European Union
and makes it the ninth language with most speakers,
even though it is not an oficial language of the EU.
The Catalan written arts show examples of national
and universal benchmarks. Ramon Llull, Ramon Mun-
taner and Joanot Martorell made valuable contributi-
ons to the Catalan language and European mediaeval
literature. Jacint Verdaguer, Vctor Catal and Joan
Maragall contributed to the 19thcentury renaissan-
ce. The 20th century produced talents still spreading
internationally, such as Salvador Espriu, Josep Pla,
Merc Rodoreda, Manuel de Pedrolo, Pere Calders,
Jess Moncada, Miquel Mart i Pol, Quim Monz and
Jaume Cabr.
A crossroads of cultures and influences before the
consolidation of Catalan and the remaining Latin
languages, in the country the Christians wrote in
Latin, the Muslims in Arabic and the Jews in Hebrew.
Recently there have been a large number of notewor-
thy Catalan writers of the Spanish language, such
as Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Mars, Manuel Vzquez
Montalbn, Javier Cercas, Enrique Vila-Matas and
Carlos Ruiz Zafn.
In the course of the centuries, the Catalan culture has
developed a singular and universal identity. The inno-
vative nature, the creativity and capacity to absorb the
diferent influences and the values of coexistence and
tolerance have forged a national and cosmopolitan
culture. Characters from diferent disciplines have en-
joyed considerable world repercussion, such as Antoni
Gaud, Salvador Dal, Joan Mir, Pau Casals, Ferran
Adri and Josep Carreras, amongst many others.
With a diverse society like the Catalan, which has
received more than a million people in the last 15
years (15% of the population) and where more than
half of the population have roots outside, the society
as a whole has been capable of creating a successful
educational model with an extremely high consensus,
recognised by the European Parliament.
This model has allowed the knowledge, prestige and
use of the Catalan language to be increased, following
its persecution and the cultural genocide of the
Francoist and previous regime. At the same time, the
Catalan school has contributed decisively to the social
cohesion, equal opportunities and coexistence in
Catalonia, as it guarantees the knowledge of the two
oficial languages, Catalan and Spanish, and does not
segregate pupils by reason of identity or ethnic group.
The Spanish Minister of Education, Jos Ignacio Wert,
has recently put forward an education law which takes
the educational community, the political parties and
the Catalan institutions headon. It is an educational
counter reform that is retrograde, recentralising, har-
monising and ideological, which makes no suggestions
to improve the quality of the education. Wert stated
textually that our interest is to hispanify the Catalan
children and therefore intends to aford Catalan the
same weight in schools as the third foreign language.
The bill also aims to limit the capacity of the Parlia-
ment of Catalonia to decide on the educational model
and fails to respect the very broad Catalan political
and social consensus before such a sensitive issue.
These facts once more show the lack of respect
towards the Catalan language and culture by a
large part of Spanish society, a society that fails to
recognise the plurinationality of the Spanish state
or even diversity, and which therefore makes any
federal type of project impossible, as was demons-
trated in the process of drawing up a new Statute of
Autonomy in 2006.
CataloniaEurope links
Catalonia has historically always had a clear interna-
tional vocation thanks to its geographic location at
the gateway to Europe and as a nexus of union with
Mediterranean. This makes it a country of communi-
cation, exchange, enterprise and welcome.
In the Middle Ages, thanks to the commercial
dynamism and the military conquests of the crown
of Aragon, the leading western maritime power in
the 13th century was the Catalan. The Catalans also
contributed to regulating maritime relationships in
the Mediterranean with the Llibre del Consolat de
Mar (1370). Sea Consulates were established in the
most important ports and cities of the Mediterranean
and mediaeval Catalan trade also reached continental
Europe and the north Atlantic.
Since the end of the 19th century, modern and con-
temporary Catalanism has taken Europe as a benc-
hmark of technical, economic, social and democratic
development. At diferent times of history, France,
England, Germany, Italy and other countries with more
advanced social and economic systems than Catalonia
have been closely followed by the majority of intellec-
tuals, politicians, industrialists and scientists.
Both on the political level and on the social, Catala-
nism has wished to be connected and related directly
with Europe, a relationship that represents a state-
ment of its own personality, the view of Europe as an
example to be followed and a way to overcome the
limitations imposed by the Spanish state.
This will be shown through diferent popular initiatives
which, overcoming the political and institutional filters,
have connected important sectors of Catalonia with
other continental and international groups. Numerous
clubs, observatories, institutes, technical schools, asso-
ciations and groups born at this time and imported
from other parts of the continent are a clear example
of this; referents which are not generally imported to
the rest of the state because of its reticence to change.
These movements were prohibited during the times
of dictatorship and relationships were only maintained
from exile with other European and international
social and political movements.
From the time of democracy in 1977, these relati-
onships were taken up in a more standard manner,
both politically and socially. Following the process of
European construction and integration, accelerated
by Spains entry in the European Union in 1986, the
relationships grew on both the institutional and the
civil-social level.
Some of the most important initiatives in which
Catalonia took part are the Committee of European
Regions, the Assembly of European Regions, the Four
Motors Europe association (with BadenWrttem-
berg, RhneAlpes and Lombardi). Catalonia has had
a weight in creating these institutions thanks to its
strong commitment to European integration.
The creation of the Pyrenees Mediterranean Euro-
region, which brings together Catalonia, the Balearic
Islands, LanguedocRoussillon and MidiPyrnes, is
intended to create a pole of sustainable development
to the northwest of the Mediterranean and to contri-
bute to Europes social and economic construction.
In the Civic area, the Catalan Council of the European
Movement, which forms part of the International Eu-
ropean Movement, is a transversal Catalan association
formed by political parties, union and business orga-
nisations, public administrations and other entities,
which promotes Europeanism and the integration of
Europe. The Catalan Council was founded in exile in
the late 1940s, before the Spanish Federal Council
of the European Movement, and has been a member
in full right of the International European Movement
since it was created.
Since the entry in the European Union, the participati-
on of local administrations in European initiatives and
projects alongside administrations and bodies of other
countries has been particularly important.
Both the European Commission and the European
Parliament have representation and information ofi-
ces in Barcelona, organising informative and educatio-
nal activities on European questions.
Finally, a large number of Catalan political parties play
a sovereign role in the European parties, from the
European United Left to the European Popular Party.
Despite this intense participation in Europe, in recent
years many political and social areas have found dif-
ficulty in defending the political, social and economic
interests of Catalonia in Brussels. The European Union
has not allowed a significant political participation be-
cause the Spanish state has almost always prevented
it and because the European Union is above all a uni-
on of states, with little weight for nations and regions.
A very obvious case would be the failure to admit the
oficialdom of the Catalan language, even though it
is the ninth most widely spoken language in Europe,
ahead of 14 oficial languages.
Well into the 21st century, the idea of an independent
or homogenous state like a hundred years ago is neit-
her possible nor desirable. The growing diversity and
interdependence of societies means that the project
of creating a Catalan state has passed through its par-
ticipation in a strong and democratic European project,
with common policies in taxation, finance, immigration,
infrastructures, etc.
International policy
Since 1989, the Generalitat has promoted foreign
presence as a way to defend the interests of Catalo-
nia, to develop the internationalisation of companies,
to disseminate the Catalan culture and language, to
give a drive to tourism, to manage immigration and
to nurture development cooperation. Therefore the
Government of Catalonia has more than thirty ofices
dedicated to internationalising Catalan companies
around the world.
Similarly, Catalonia was the first autonomous commu-
nity to open a delegation in Brussels in the same year
when Spain entered the EU (1986). It was also the first
sub-state government to sign agreements with the
United Nations (2005).
Recent years have seen an intensification of Catalan
foreign policy despite the headon opposition of the
Spanish government. New representation ofices have
been created in strategic countries, its presence in
multilateral bodies has been consolidated and bilate-
ral relationships have been intensified with state and
sub-state governments.
In this sense, Barcelona is the base of the Union for
the Mediterranean, which is of great social and eco-
nomic importance for Catalonia. Barcelona, after New
York and Hong Kong, is also the third city of the world
which is not the state capital but has larger number
of foreign consulates, with around a hundred certified
establishments.
Catalonia has very active diasporas in many countries,
which are playing a very important role to inform on the
Catalan culture and report Catalan cause around the
world. With the name of Catalan Communities Abroad,
there are now groups, associations, Catalan centres,
academic and business groups all around the world, in
addition to other informal initiatives. The Catalan Nati-
onal Assembly (ANC), the institution which has led the
present process for the right to decide, also has more
than 20 foreign assemblies on the five continents.
On the academic level, international initiatives have
appeared which give rigorous and objective infor-
mation on the process of independence in Catalonia.
The Wilson Collective, for example, brings together
academics of renowned international prestige related
to universities and centres such as Harvard, Massac-
husetts Institute of Technology, London School of
Economics, Princeton University, Columbia University
and the National Bureau of Economic Research, etc.
Some names include Xavier Sala i Martn, Carles Boix
and Pol Antrs. The very Minister of Economy of the
Generalitat de Catalunya, Andreu Mas-Colell, was a
teacher of economic science at the universities of
Harvard and Berkeley and is also the author of one of
the benchmark micro economy manuals in the world
(Microeconomic Theory, 1995)
4 The process
of independence
The political reasons
The predominant political, economic and social model
in Europe lies in a deep crisis which particularly afects
the southern states. This has been the general con-
text in which the mechanisms of political, economic
and cultural subordination of the Catalan Territories
have progressively become obvious, as well as the
growing restlessness and the capacity to mobilise
broad sectors of citizens.
In Catalonia, this situation has brought forth growing
support to independence, whereas in other territories
of Catalonia, the movement has developed at diferent
rates. There follows a summary of the political reasons
behind this process.
Overcoming the economic,
social and political crisis
In recent years, Catalonia has experienced a very deep
human and social transformation which has turned it
into a much more diverse country with a global family,
economic and cultural links. Since 2000, the techno-
logical leap, changes in behaviour and the forms of
social organisation, the intense migrations from other
places and the tertiarisation of the economy have de-
epened the countrys exceptionally open and dynamic
nature. However, the coincidence of the international
financial crisis, the bursting of the Spanish real estate
bubble with the collapse of the construction sector,
the reorganisation of the local system of banks and
savings banks and the contraction of public and priva-
te expenditure have had serious repercussions.
840,000 people without jobs, many more in a situ-
ation of vulnerability, generalised impoverishment,
deterioration of the productive fabric, little economic
dynamism, the closing of companies, scarce or no
opportunities for the young, falling consumption, lack
of credit... the social bill of the crisis has been terrible
and the country is in recession.
Those measures intended to stabilise the public and
private finances have caused great sufering and ac-
hieved quite the opposite efect. Despite the cutbacks
which have been made, the tax pressure, the public
deficit, debt, unemployment and the black market are
still on the increase. The overall situation of crisis is
worse still in Catalonia due to the multiplying efect
of the countrys political and economic subordination.
Even the design of the economic policy of austerity
prescribed by Europe has been complemented with
adjustments imposed by the Spanish state, taking
advantage of the crisis to develop an autonomic,
recentralising, competence-layering involution that
wipes out self-government.
The Spanish case reveals a scandalous level of corrup-
tion, huge wasting of resources on radial and ruinous
infrastructures and the pouring of resources into the
bank system, artificially maintaining a series of entities
without solving the problem of the provision of credit
to the productive fabric. Simultaneously, the social
problem of unemployment and evictions has revealed
the cracks in democracy and has made the citizens
react to produce new movements of social response.
These movements, which spread to the middle classes,
are highly critical of conventional politics and gene-
rally demand a profound democratic regeneration.
The Catalan call for the popular consultation is the
most legitimate way to place democracy in the hands
of the whole of society. Above all when the opportu-
nity to freely and consciously choose the political fu-
ture is directly linked to the opportunity to form a new,
more prosperous and socially fairer economic system
and to proceed towards a profound democratic and
institutional regeneration which strengthens citizens
in the face of the public powers.
In this context, the proposal of an independent state
appears as the only complete project for turning the
whole of the political system of the country and is a
plausible line for overcoming the crisis, both in Spain
and Europe. Therefore, the social debate with respect
to the crisis cannot be taken on without bearing in
mind the question of sovereignty and the question of
democratic quality and radicality.
The failure of the Statute of Autonomy
Since its birth in the 19thcentury, political Catalanism
has been characterised by the majority will to exercise
the self-government of Catalonia within the fra-
mework of a modernised Spanish state, albeit through
autonomous or federal forms. Since the democratic
transition, the majority parties in Catalonia have
shared the need to seek an understanding with the
State, whereas those in favour of independence have
enjoyed less weight.
However, there is a growing tension between the state
and the Generalitat, Catalans feel less and less at ease
before an ever more repeated discrimination and the
persistent informative intoxication of the Spanish me-
dia on the Catalan situation. The mistrust of the Cata-
lan population with respect to the form of self-govern-
ment agreed in the transition had grown until the end
of the 1990s as the subordination of Catalan politics to
the Spanish movement became more obvious.
In 2005 the Catalan party signed a reformation of the
Statute of Autonomy in order to correct the enor-
mous tax deficit with the State, to assure the Catalan
competencies and to adapt it to the new times. After
being approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, the
Congress of Ministers reduced its principal contents
thanks to the pact between the PSOE and CiU. In the
rest of the state, there was fierce opposition from dif-
ferent areas, and particularly from the right. Catalonia
finally approved the new Statute in a referendum and
it came into force in 2006.
Although the new statute did not mean particularly
substantial changes, the PP and other autonomous
communities organised a severe media campaign
which nurtured anticatalanism and collected signatu-
res to appeal against the new Statute in the Consti-
tutional Court. In 2010 the Court passed a sentence
which cancelled 14 articles and reinterpreted another
27, which ended up watering down the content of the
Statute; a court in which the mandate of most of its
members had expired made a political reading of the
Constitution, acting as a third legislative chamber and
not at all neutral. In certain aspects, the sentence even
supposed a step backwards with respect to the previ-
ous Statute in a clear context of autonomic involution
by the Partido Popular and other political sectors.
In Catalonia the sentence was received with a feeling
of great humiliation, as a great political and social
consensus had been developed around the Statute.
The initial proposal approved by 90% of the Parlia-
ment of Catalonia was an opportunity to define a new
form of relationship with the Spanish state to satisfy
the aspirations of greater selfgovernment on the part
of numerous Catalans. With the Constitutional Court
sentence, it was seen that it was impossible to express
the Spanish state in a more federal and respectful
sense towards Catalonia.
The immediate consequence of the Court sentence
was the great popular and transversal demonstration
rejecting the sentence (July 2010), the first demons-
tration that sovereignty was now a hegemonic issue in
Catalanism.
The state closed the door on the Statute (2010) and
opposed the tax pact and economic concert (2012).
Incapable of conceiving and expressing the state in
a plural manner, Spanish nationalism, with its roots in
Castile, maintained its historically standardising con-
ception as opposed to diversity. With a few nuances,
this conception was shared by the right and the left
in Spain. The states abandonment with respect to
the basic consensus of the majority of the Catalans,
politically united around the central and autonomist
parties (CiU and PSC), pushed Catalanism towards
sovereign positions.
The pact between CiU and the PP after the elections
in 2010, involved the application of the policies of aus-
terity and cutbacks until the Artur Mass government
realised that it was socially unacceptable to continue
along this line. In the elections of 25 November 2012,
ERC became the second force in the Parliament and
the CUP came in. The bulk of the electorate moved
towards the left and towards sovereign positions and
a new majority was set up in the Parliament in favour
of the Catalan exercise of the right to decide.
The economic reasons
The discussion on the economic discrimination sufered
by Catalonia has formed part of Spains contemporary
history at least since 1850. Today the studies made
show that by tax levels and public expenditure in real
investment, Catalonia has been economically stripped.
The management of the present economic crisis has
accentuated Catalonias unfair treatment and political
and economic subjection. The economic stifling of
the Generalitat and the centrifugation of the public
debt in the autonomous communities are an example
of this. This situation has strengthened the causality
between the tax stripping and the social stripping and
the majority conviction that remaining in the Spanish
state will lead Catalonia to collapse.
The Catalan tax deficit
The Catalan tax deficit has been repeatedly analysed
from Catalonia on the basis of technical and objective
criteria. The tax balance is the diference between
the taxes paid by the people and companies of the
territory and the services, infrastructures or income
they receive. The USA, Canada, Australia and the EU
analyse the tax balances to measure the transfers
between the member states as objectively as possible.
Between 1986 and 2009, the average tax deficit was
8.1% of GDP, and between 2006 and 2010, Catalo-
nia contributed 16,000 million euros a year in taxes
that were not returned. This all adds up to a total
of 214,236 million euros between 1986 and 2009. In
individual terms, each Catalan on average gives more
than 2,200 a year which are not returned. This deficit
is not comparable with any other developed country.
In Germany, for example, it is considered that the net
contribution of a region to the total should not exceed
4% of GDP.
The enormous magnitude of the debt shows that Ca-
talonia gave Spain a yearly 15,640 million euros from
2005 to 2009, whereas Germany gave Europe 10,397
million euros a year from 2007 to 2011, 50% less. As
a result of this system, Catalonia passes from being
in 4th place in the distribution of pretax income
to 11th place when the result of the tax balances is
considered. This is a structural situation, for 30 years
of transfers have served to maintain certain subsidi-
sed autonomous communities, but above all to take
resources and wealth to Madrid. This community,
which also brings much wealth to the state, benefits
from both the large concentration of expenditure and
the state investment.
The tax deficit has serious consequences on the po-
pulation and becomes a social deficit in Catalonia, as
the lack of state expenditure afects health, education
and social welfare policies. 29.5% of the Catalan popu-
lation (2,224,800 people) are now living in a state of
poverty or social exclusion (2011).
The Constitution and the institutions of the autonomic
state are no guarantee for Catalonia, for as it is not
recognised as a nation, it is at the mercy of the politi-
cal majorities of the Spanish state, always contrary to
it. The theoretically neutral institutions show a clear
political orientation; the tax deficit is therefore the
consequence of an uneven political relationship in
which the citizens of Catalonia are considered a per-
manent minority without real guarantees to defend
their self-government.
The elimination of the tax deficit would bring in a
substantial amount of income, though also a small
increase in the expenditure to pay for central services
and the proportional part of the public debt. Accor-
ding to the experts, the budgetary surplus would be
10,800 million euros and the Catalan government
could eliminate the cutbacks it has applied and invest
in policies of economic growth.
Infrastructure deficit
In the last 20 years, Catalonia has lost weight in favour
of Spanish regions such as Madrid, which have been
favoured by continuous and discriminatory favourable
treatment. The giant state public investment in public
works to promote the capital, Madrid, has been a huge
waste without any kind of economic justification. The
high-speed railway network and Madrid airport are
two very clear examples.
Spain is the second country in the world in the
number of high-speed railway kilometres, only behind
China and with much lower levels of use than the
systems in other countries. This radial network, where
all of the trains pass through Madrid, has not followed
the economic criteria of facilitating the exports of
the Mediterranean area, which accounts for 60% of
Spanish exports. On the contrary, the present model
of infrastructures, which is a copy of that of the 18th
century, has followed political criteria based on deeply
centralist Spanish nationalistic ideology.
Similarly, the enormous investment and prioritisation
of Madrid airport over Barcelona has been intended to
divert international transit to the Spanish capital. The
aim of creating a core of development in the centre
of the Spanish state has guided a large part of the
investment in public works without bearing in mind
the needs and evolution of the real economy. The gre-
at beneficiaries of these investments have been the
large Spanish companies directly or indirectly related
to the state, in a model which has not rewarded their
competitiveness but rather their connection with the
political powers.
Historically, since the first law which established Ma-
drid as the origin of all roads (1720), the Spanish state
has always conceived and built the infrastructures in
a radial and centralised manner. The first axes of the
state roads (1761) did not even contemplate any road
to Catalonia.
The same thing would happen a century later, when a
railway network was conceived which did not include
any line to Catalonia. In fact the first state railway
line was built in 1848 between Barcelona and Matar
without any state contribution, and the same would
happen with the rest of the railway lines built in
Catalonia.
Radiality and the lack of investment in Catalonia have
been a constant in the Spanish state infrastructu-
res from the 18th century to the present-day. This
irrational model penalises the more dynamic areas
from the economic, industrial and exporting point
of view, which coincide with the Mediterranean area
(the former crown of Aragon). Even in times of crisis
such as now, the state fails to favour the growth of the
territories which act as the driving force behind the
Spanish economy.
To compensate the chronic deficit of investment
from the state to Catalonia, the Statute of the auto-
nomy of 2006 obliges the Spanish government to
devote the same percentage of investment as the
population of Catalonia (18%). This has not been
fulfilled and has accumulated an additional debt of
some 3.900 million euros.
In the area of roads and motorways, in Catalonia 67%
of the motorways have tolls and 33% are free. By
contrast, in the whole of the state 20% of the mo-
torways have tolls and 80% are free. In 2010, of the
12,974 kilometres of free motorways in the state, there
were 703 in Catalonia. On the other hand, of the 2,991
kilometres of toll motorways, 632 are on Catalan lands.
On the railways, the investment in local trains in
Barcelona has been much smaller than in Madrid. In
the early 1990s, Barcelona received an investment of
7.9 million, while Madrid received 88.2 million. In the
highspeed railway lines (AVE), since 1992 the state
has invested 45,000 million euros in connecting every
provincial capital with Madrid, despite incalculable
losses due to the infrastructures lack of profitability. By
contrast, Barcelonas connection to the French frontier
was not finished until the end of 2013, showing the litt-
le Spanish interest in connecting Catalonia with Europe.
The Mediterranean Corridor, a railway infrastructure
intended to connect the dynamic exporting regions of
the Mediterranean with Europe, has been postponed
by successive Spanish governments. They even pre-
sented the European Union with a proposal to make
a central corridor passing through Madrid and the
Pyrenees of Aragon, avoiding Catalonia. The Council
of the EU unanimously rejected this proposal and
supported the Mediterranean Corridor.
In airports, Spain, with 46 million inhabitants has 52
airports, whereas Germany, with 81 million inhabitants,
has 28. In recent years numerous airports have been
built of dubious viability. Furthermore, the Spanish
state does not allow decentralised management and
competence in airports, which is what happens in the
whole of Europe. The investment in Barcelona airport
is much smaller than that in Madrid, making it dificult
to compete. There have even been hindrances placed
on Barcelonas connection with intercontinental flights,
despite the growing demand.
Finally, Barcelona port is the principal port in the Spa-
nish state in terms of income and the key infrastructu-
re in economic development. The state has constantly
postponed the ports railway connection, which would
favour export growth.
The economic stifling of the Generalitat
The state is more and more belligerent against the
institutions and the Catalan government; it has stifled
it economically, it has failed to meet its commitments,
it has put back transfers and hindered increased
income via new taxes. The Spanish government has
therefore forced the Generalitat to apply new cut-
backs afecting health care services, the health system,
education and the economy (suppression of subsidies,
blockage of public investment, delay in payment to
suppliers, elimination of public structures...).
The unequal share-out of the public deficit between
the state and the autonomous communities has been
intended to force the Generalitat to make further
cutbacks. Although Europe extended the limit of the
state public deficit to 6.3% of GDP, the state failed to
proportionally increase the deficit limit of the autono-
mous communities, which are responsible for 36% of
the public expenditure in the Spanish state.
In the present situation, the Generalitat is unable
to face up to the daytoday treasury needs and is
obliged to put back payments to suppliers and civil
servants, while having to resort to the Autonomic
Liquidity Fund (FLA). This fund simply forwards some
money which the Catalan government will later have
to return with interest. These resources come partly
from the taxes collected in Catalonia and from the
public debt which the state pays at a lower interest.
In the Generalitat budgets for 2014, the public debt
and its interest already amount to 22%, whereas the
resources produced in Catalonia are larger.
The increase in unemployment, the salary cutbacks,
the fall in consumption, the general slowing of econo-
mic activity and the lack of immediate expectations
of improvement have caused discouragement and
uncertainty. Poverty and indigence have increased in
large social sectors. Only supportive volunteer forces
and bonds of friendship and relatives have prevented
the cracks from growing.
Under such conditions, the autonomic path no longer
provides any alternative solution. Emancipation is now a
need even for the majority of those who do not want it.
The reasons for the country form
In the face of the very serious economic, social and
political crisis, citizens see the need to introduce mea-
sures to get out of the crisis, to eliminate the political
corruption, to increase the transparency of the politi-
cal system and the ethics of those who govern.
The political forces supporting the sovereign pro-
cess share basic elements which also lie in the basic
Catalan laws such as the statute. These elements are
found at the base of the conception of the Catalan
nation and come from the democratic, pluralist and
liberal European tradition. Catalonia is considered a
nation built by the sum of contributions of diferent
cultures, languages and traditions, with a will to build
a common future. Respect for diversity, peaceful and
democratic coexistence, the value of work and social
cohesion are the basic traits of Catalan society.
The Spanish state neither understands nor respects
this form of being, as was demonstrated in the discus-
sion on the Statute and in the constant campaign of
numerous media against the institutions and elements
of Catalan culture.
The creation of a new Catalan state is also perceived
as necessary to be able to increase the leadership,
participation and power of action and decision of
the citizens. It is an opportunity to build honest and
transparent public management with the elimination
of privileges, with care and eficiency in the allocation
of public resources and democratic radicality.
The Catalan productive economy based on small and
mediumsized companies needs an open, sustainable
and competitive economic system which guarante-
es the work and opportunities of the majority. This
economy is in open conflict with the financial and
speculative economy of the Spanish oligarchy formed
by companies and families related to public works,
finance and energy.
In a context of threat from the capital and the markets
visavis the welfare state, the independence mo-
vement pursues a social model typical of a modern
society, which leaves behind no one and gives everyone
opportunities. A country in which citizens have universal
access to education, to health, social services and culture
and become responsible for achieving common welfare.
Since the restoration of the Generalitat, innovative
and leading sector policies have been defined in dif-
ferent areas, such as education, health, the media and
the environment. These policies have often come up
against the opposition of the central state administra-
tion, which has tried to limit the action with measures
intended to standardise the social and political reality.
Catalonia needs to be an independent state which
allows its own country to be developed with instru-
ments and policies adapted to the characteristics and
needs of Catalan society.
A people in movement
Civil society has had, has and will have an outstanding
role in Catalonias process towards independence.
This is a topdown process legitimated from the base
of citizens and driven by the social movements for
independence set out in organisations such as the
Catalan National Assembly (ANC), mnium Cultural,
the Association of Independentist Municipalities (AMI)
and many other specific platforms.
To understand this process, it is necessary to know
the historical importance of Catalan associationism.
Since the 19th century, the association movement
has been a constant in Catalan life, adapting to the
typical characteristics of each time and to the diferent
interests of society. The former entities worked to
promote Catalan culture, to develop literacy amongst
the workers in forums, hiking or choir singing. Despite
societys evolution, today they still have an important
weight; in terms of culture alone there are nearly
7,000 entities acting as developers and performing
cohesion and social participation.
The conflictive process of the management of the
Statute of 2006 brought forth important popular
mobilisations under the auspices of social platforms
and parties. The demonstration against the sentence
of the Statute in July 2010 was a point of inflection for
its great support.
Alongside this, between 2009 and 2011 consultations
were organised on independence in more than 500
municipalities, in which nearly 900.000 people took
part. In an event without international precedents,
civil society organised itself on the local level into
plural and transversal commissions in order to hold
consultations. The organising commissions, created
ad hoc, claimed to be erected as a state holding elec-
tions, that is, to guarantee everyones equal access
to the urns and the free vote of all of the political
options. Nearly 45.000 volunteers were mobilised
from the pioneering consultation in Arenys de Munt
to the last in Barcelona.
Despite the head-on opposition of the Spanish
government, the consultations had a considerable
international efect with media from around the world
following the diferent voting.
The public consultation movement was the embryo
of the Catalan National Assembly, constituted in 2012
as a transversal and plural organisation to maintain
the interest in the process of national emancipation.
Around the ANC and the civic and associative world,
the call to the decisive demonstration of 11 September
2012 was gestated.
One and a half million people called for independence
in the streets of Barcelona. With few precedents in
Europe, the event placed the Catalan claim on the
agenda of international bodies and media and chan-
ged the Catalan political agenda. The government had
to call early elections and to start to work to hold a
referendum on self-determination.
A year later, on 11 September 2013, more than
1.600.000 people took part in the Via Catalana per
la Independncia (Catalan Road to Independence) a
human chain 400 kilometres long from the south to
the north of Catalonia, organised by the Catalan Nati-
onal Assembly. The via was an overwhelming success
that showed the world the democratic and peaceful
will of the Catalan people and had a very large inter-
national impact due to its magnitude and the way it
was mobilised. As a sign of this international impact,
the Via Catalana was the photo of the year chosen by
the readers of the Wall Street Journal.
The peaceful, democratic and constructive vocation
of the popular movement has contrasted with the dis-
credit of the institutional politics, worsened by cases
of corruption, party tactism, the inoperability of the
leading classes and the lack of future projects.
With the will to increase still further the base of
the movement for the right to decide, the National
Pact for the Right to Decide was constituted in May
2013. This includes a large part of Catalan society,
civil, cultural entities, economic and social agents in
favour of holding the referendum, regardless of their
specific option.
The institutional road
(from 25N2012 to 9N2014):
the democratic mandate
In the elections of 25 November 2012, with record
participation, the Catalan electors came down in the
majority on the political forces in favour of calling a
popular consultation to decide the political future of
Catalonia.
To constitute a new state, a democratic mandate must
be received from the citizens, which may be the result
of a referendum or consultation, plebiscitary elections
or the declaration of the Parliament. Having achieved
the democratic mandate, the formal constitution of a
new state is produced by the combination of:
A juridical and political act of proclamation of
independence from the Parliament, democratically
chosen and established for this purpose.
International recognition by other states as a basis
to recognition by the international organisations.
From then on, the construction process must translate
the political will into the foundation of a legal fra-
mework based on the approval of a new constitution.
The Advisory Council for National Transition, formed
by Catalan experts of renowned value in the legal,
economic and social areas have carried out diferent
studies and made technical reports on the procedures
to be followed by the institutions and Catalan civil
society in achieving a new state.
On 23 January 2012, the Parliament of Catalonia
approved the Declaration of sovereignty and for the
exercise of the right to decide, the instrument which
announced the beginning of Catalonias path to inde-
pendence, based on the right to decide in connection
with the democratic principle. It says that the people
of Catalonia, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, has
the character of a sovereign political and legal subject.
The declaration announces that all of the legal
frameworks will be used to enforce the strengthe-
ning of democracy and the exercise of the right to
decide. Therefore Catalonia must provide itself with
a legal framework that gives rigour, impartiality and
legitimacy both in the popular consultation and
throughout the process. At present time there are
several mechanisms that would allow this consultation
to be organised legally, although they depend on the
political will of the Spanish government.
In December 2013 the political forces in favour of
calling the popular consultation agreed on the date
and the text of the question. The consultation will
be made on 9 November 2014 and the question will
be, Do you want Catalonia to become a state? And
in the event of a yes vote, Do you want this state to
be independent? After this, on 16 January 2014 the
Parliament of Catalonia formalised this agreement
with the approval of a bill so that the Spanish state
might delegate upon the Generalitat de Catalunya the
competence to authorise, call and hold a referendum
on the political future of Catalonia.
The Spanish parliament will have to make a formal de-
cision on the proposal of the Catalan parliament and
is likely once more to deny the Catalans the chance to
decide on their own future. The denial of the Catalans
right to decide is a denial of the sovereignty of the
Catalan people and essentially the mutilation of the
fundamental right of people to live in a democracy.
Therefore, if the Spanish state fails to authorise the
consultation, Catalonia will be legitimate in the eyes
of the international community to hold the popular
consultation on the basis of Catalan legality.
Three possible scenarios have been envisaged in this
situation:
Agreement with the Spanish state and consul-
tation within the framework of Spanish legality:
though very improbable, the state might be
obliged to accept the consultation and therefore
to accept the result.
Consultation with European intervention: the Spa-
nish state would prohibit the performance of the
popular consultation and would reveal its antidemo-
cratic behaviour, which would move the internati-
onal community to apply the democratic principle.
The European and international intervention would
oblige the state to accept a consultation under the
guard and supervision of the international bodies
and actors, who would provide the minimum and
suficient guarantees for the consultation to be held.
Prohibition of the popular consultation without
minimal guarantees or European intervention: if
the state should prohibit the consultation and the
European institutions should refuse to take part in
the process, all that would remain would be to hold
plebiscitary elections, the result of which could
allow a declaration of independence. If the state
should fail to recognise the new situation, it would
legally be leaving the Catalan case in a situation
similar to that of Kosovo, in which respect there is a
favourable precedent in the pronouncement of the
International Court of Justice.
Finally, if the democratic mandate is achieved, there
would be a phase of negotiation with the state to
make the secession efective within the constituting
phase of the process. It will be a question of agreeing
on the restoration of sovereignty and the share-out of
assets and liabilities between the two states.
2014 will be a decisive year for the future of Cata-
lonia. The institutions, parties and civil societies will
work hard to prepare the consultation with the maxi-
mum guarantees of legality, democracy and security.
300 years later, the Catalan people may recover their
full sovereignty within the concert of the European
nations.
A fight for democracy:
from self-determination
to the right to decide
The Spanish state has continuously shown that it is
not willing to make reforms that might accommodate
the Catalan aspirations. The mutilation of the Statute
in 2006 by the Spanish parliament and the Constituti-
onal Court, and its refusal to negotiate a tax agree-
ment demonstrate the lack of will to build a federal
type of Spanish state. The current socalled federalist
political proposals do not amount to a substantial
change in the present situation, but have little political
support in Spain and little credibility in Catalan society.
In the face of the non-fulfilments and the impossibility
of reaching an understanding with the Spanish state,
the broad pro-sovereignty movement that has been
created in Catalonia in recent years, formed by organi-
sations of civil society, political parties and the Catalan
institutions, calls for the possibility of the Catalan peo-
ple to be able to freely decide their collective political
future in accordance with the right to decide.
The United Nations Charter of 1945, the Universal De-
claration of Human Rights and the International Pact
on Civil Rights of 1966 establish that self-determina-
tion is a fundamental, individual and collective right
of people and peoples to freely decide their political,
economic, social and cultural status.
This right internationally covered the independence of
the former colonies after 1945, and that of the Baltic
countries and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. However,
international doctrine has considered since 1960 that
the possibility to exercise ones right to selfdetermi-
nation is reserved only for peoples in a state of colo-
nial subjection, foreign military occupation or absence
of respect for human rights and lack of a government
representing the citizens of the country.
The so-called right to decide arises as a paradigm
of the independence processes in modern countries
and advanced societies in the 21st century. This right
is defined as the right of a political community to de-
mocratically express its will in relation to its collective
political future.
The right to decide is connected to the democratic
principle present in all texts of international law, inter-
nal constitutional law and the treaties of the European
Union, and establishes the citizens right to take part
in any decision that afects them, without restrictions
and in equality of rights amongst people.
The right to decide is a legal figure under construction
which is beginning to be recognised by international
jurisprudence and lies within international legality.
At the present time, the efective recognition of the
right to decide and its connection with the democra-
tic principle can be found in three recent processes
in this fourth wave of processes of independence:
QuebecCanada, KosovoSerbia and ScotlandUnited
Kingdom.
In the case of Quebec and Canada, the Canadian fe-
deral authorities authorised 2 referendums in Quebec
(1980 and 1995). In 1998, the Canadian Supreme Court
stated that Quebec had no right to secession, but that
if it opted for independence in a referendum made
with all guarantees, this decision would have to be
respected by virtue of the democratic principle and
would oblige a constitutional reformation to be made
in Canada to make it efective.
In the case of the independence of Kosovo from Ser-
bia, in 2008 the Assembly of elected posts of Kosovo
approved the Unilateral Declaration of Independence
from Serbia. The International Court of Justice (Reso-
lution of 22 July 2010, Court of the Hague) concluded
that the unilateral declaration of Independence was
not contrary to international law in the sense that it
infringed no international law, Because it was the
declaration of a chamber freely elected by the citizens
and therefore the expression of the democratic princi-
ple. The International Court also concluded that the
principle of territorial integrity refers to the relations-
hips between states and not to the possible indepen-
dence of the territory inside a state.
Scotland and the United Kingdom have recently
decided to hold an independence referendum in Sep-
tember 2014. This decision reveals that political will,
dialogue, negotiation and agreement can accompany
the recognition of the exercise of the right to decide
as a necessary mechanism for changing current legal
frameworks.
In its process, Catalonia will have to bear in mind the
international references, but above all be sure that it
is defining its own model. This model passes through
exhausting all forms of negotiation and dialogue with
the state in order to gain full democratic legitimacy.
Catalonia a new State of Europe
Social support to independence
The social support to independence has grown
constantly and decisively in recent years. The surveys
made in the last two years by the Opinion Study
Centre (CEO) of the Generalitat de Catalunya show
a consolidation of the majority in favour of a Yes to
independence. Around 55% support the Yes, 25%
support the No and 15% abstain.
The consistency of a majority in favour of a Yes vote
to independence is confirmed by the evolution of the
replies concerning the form of expression desired for
Catalonia. In November 2013, the option of being an
independent state was preferred (48.5%) 27 points
more than the federal state (21.3%) and 30 more
than autonomy (18.6%).
At the end of 2010, the option in favour of autonomy
was that which received most support in Catalonia
(38.2%). Since then, an accelerated conversion process
has been seen from the autonomist and federalist opti-
ons to those of independence, related to the sentence
of the Constitutional Court against the Statute and the
demands of the Catalan people for greater sovereignty.
This change of positions has very considerably afec-
ted the electoral bases of CiU, but also those of ICV
and the PSC. Following the fulmination of the Statute,
a new political centrality was established in Catalonia,
expressed in the results of the elections of 25 Novem-
ber 2012, which make ERC the second political bloc in
the Parliament. The latest surveys made place ERC as
the leading political bloc in the Parliament of Catalo-
nia for the first time since the Republic, with a 24.2%
intention of vote.
Economic viability
The studies made up to the present time by experts
show the economic viability of an independent Cata-
lonia. Bearing in mind the current tax debt with the
Spanish state, the additional income between 2006
and 2009 would have been a yearly average of 16,662
million euros, 8.5% of its GDP. This figure is twice the
Catalan health budget and four times that of education.
The studies made have considered factors like the ad-
ditional income from taxes and rates now received by
the state, and payments to the social security. It has
also been borne in mind that with an independent Ca-
talonia, there would be no public deficit and therefore
the cost of the public debt would have to be deduc-
ted. In the area of expenses, these would be likely to
increase due to the exercise of the typical functions of
a state and those derived from the crisis.
The Catalan republic would therefore be economically
and socially viable, as it would be able to cover the
payment of pensions and unemployment in addition
to financing its debt due to its greater capacity to pay.
In the area of the economy, Catalonias exporting
capacity must be stressed; in 2007 it exported goods
and services in a quantity equivalent to 52.2% of
GDP, on a similar level to countries such as Denmark
(52.22%) and Sweden (51.87%).
There are studies that analyse the efect of reducing
or eliminating Catalonias tax debt with the state. By
having more resources for infrastructures, conside-
rable growth in GDP and employment is expected.
Experience has shown that the economic growth and
progress of a country have more to do with economic
policy and the quality of the social institutions than its
geographic size.
Location in the European Union
and international institutions
As an independent state, Catalonia will be a loyal
partner of the European Union and international
community. It will immediately ask to join the United
Nations and agree to respect and maintain all interna-
tional commitments and obligations contracted by the
kingdom of Spain and currently in force in Catalonia. It
will also join the principal international organisations
of which it is currently a member through Spain.
As a member state of the European Union, the Cata-
lan republic will defend the model of a federal Europe,
especially in the areas of taxation, foreign policy and
defence. It will turn its present delegations into em-
bassies and establish all necessary agreements with
the European Foreign Action Service, where it is not
directly represented.
In the area of defence, Catalonia will take on the
approaches of the European security and defence
policy and assume all international commitments and
obligations derived from this. The fact of belonging to
the system of defence and international collaboration
within the EU must be clearly guided towards encou-
raging dialogue and a policy of global disarmament.
It will therefore adhere to all international treaties
against the proliferation of arms and give support to
active multilateralism.
The constitution of the new Republic will suppose the
oficial recognition of Catalan in the European Union
and international bodies. Catalonia will immediately
apply to join UNESCO, assuming all international
treaties and conventions in the area of culture. In the
field of development cooperation, Catalonia will try to
come to the forefront of the international community
for development.
Catalonia will maintain and strengthen its cultural,
economic and afective bonds with Spain, Europe, the
Mediterranean area and America, giving its view and
participating in the diferent international forums and
organisations. It will also have a specific treatment
with respect to the other territories forming the Cata-
lan nation.
In adverse circumstances and without a state, Cata-
lonia has managed to maintain, defend and update a
large part of its distinct cultural, linguistic and histo-
rical legacy. At the same time, it has been characteri-
sed by its permanent capacity to receive and accept
people from other geographical and cultural origins.
Catalonia is now ready for any transcendental challen-
ge, to become a unique subject in international society.
5 For further
information
abroad.cat
gencat.cat/catalunya/eng
diplocat.cat/en
diplocat.cat/en/activities/q-a
catalanassembly.org
catalanassembly.org/resources
wilson.cat/en
helpcatalonia.cat
collectiuemma.cat/post/category/english
6 Contact
information
Esquerra Republicana
Calbria, 166
08015 Barcelona
Telephone 93 453 60 05
Fax 93 323 71 22
info@esquerra.org
www.abroad.cat
Jordi Sol
Vice-Secretary for International Relations
jsole@esquerra.cat | jordi-sole.cat
Elisabet Nebreda
Secretary for International Policy
enebreda@esquerra.cat
Alfred Bosch
President of the ERC group in Congress
abosch@esquerra.cat | alfredbosch.cat
General Vice Secretariat
for International Relations
Calbria, 166. 08015 Barcelona
+34 93 453 60 05
info@esquerra.org
June 2014

Catalonia New State of Europe

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