Archive for Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org Scottish Politics Discussion Forum / Messageboard - Dedicated to online discussion about Scottish Politics and an Independent Scotland, as well as Scottish Society today. We also have a section dedicated to Banter, Sport and Recommended Sites.
|
Abieuan
|
Catalan NationFrom Eurolang:
| Quote: | Spanish Congress constitutional committee passes Catalan statute
Brussel - Bruxelles, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 by Davyth Hicks
The Spanish Congress of Deputies' constitutional committee yesterday passed the preamble and the complete text of the new Catalan regional statute of autonomy, despite opposition from the conservative centralist Partido Popular and the independentist Esquerra Republica Catalonia. In a press release Catalan regional premier Pasqual Maragall said yesterday that with the new statute, "it is established, for the first time in the history of Spain, that Catalonia is a nation."
The text of the preamble to the statute includes the definition of Catalonia agreed to by Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and CiU leader Artur Mas: "The Parliament of Catalonia, according to the desire and the will of the citizenry of Catalonia, has defined Catalonia as a nation by an ample majority." It adds, "The Spanish constitution, in its second article, recognizes Catalonia's national reality as a nationality," and says that Catalan self-government is based "on the constitution and on the historic rights of the Catalan people, which, within the constitutional framework, cause this statute to recognize a singular position for the Generalitat," the Catalan government.
Meanwhile, Mr Maragall’s partner in the Catalan administration, ERC leader Josep Lluis Carod Rovira, called the new statute "the preamble to a future Catalan state," and said, "Maybe they don't want to recognize Catalonia as a nation today, but maybe tomorrow they will have to do so as a state."
Speaking to Eurolang ERC Foreign Affairs Secretary Pilar Dellunde said that "Esquerra defends the text of the Statute of Catalonia approved by the Catalan Parliament on the 30th September of 2005, in which it is affirmed that "Catalonia is a nation".
"In defense of this statement thousands of Catalans demonstrated on the 18th February of 2006, in favour of national recognition in the statutory text, against the current formulation in the Preamble - a fruit of the Mas-Zapatero pact.
"In Catalonia there is not a national problem, there is a lack of fitting into a State that refuses to recognize us".
The majority of the delegations from the Congress of Deputies and the Catalan Parliament present in the committee voted in favour of the modified statute, 22 to 17 among congressional deputies and 28 to 10 among Catalan parliamentarians.
The full lower house of parliament is expected to approve the document on the 30th March.
Four sticking points remain in the deal - over management of the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, who will run Barcelona airport, and whether residents of Catalonia can participate in European elections separately from the rest of Spain. But Spanish commentators say that most points have been agreed already.
The autonomy statute refers to the region as a nation in the preamble, but not in the document itself, essentially fudging the issue of nationality which has proved so controversial. This issue has led to boycotts of Catalan goods and threats to Catalonia from the former head of the Spanish army in January. (Eurolang 2006)
http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?optio ... mp;lang=en |
|
|
|
|