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Compte enrere

9 d’abr. 2018

Letter by E. Gonzalez Pons MEP

A Letter by Esteban Gonzalez Pons MEP to all MEPs on April 9 2018.

Transcribed from the image of the letter uploaded to www.vilaweb.cat.

***To read the whole letter, click below on "Més informació" ***

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Date: Mon. 9 April 2018 13:02:51 +0000
Subject: Few thoughts on Catalonia

Dear colleagues and friends,
sure that Spanish authorities and also us, the Spanish Members of the EPP Group, accept the Court's decision, even when we do not and we cannot agree on it. But there's something more we need to think about.

Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, European citizens can enjoy an area of freedom, security and justice. We have Schengen, Europol Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor's Office and soon. But two decades later, we are still stuck in the key point. Reciprocal and genuine trust between Member States. We created the European Arrest warrant to make the return of criminals smoother, faster and safer. If this warrant doesn't work, Schengen leave us defenceless against those criminals and their crimes. This is probably me of the greatest dangers for the Union. Because Schengen is precisely one of the greatest achievements of our common history, and Europeans must be very proud of it. We need to protect it and reinforce it with additional measures preventing it to turn against our citizens, for example, in cases of terrorism, cross-border organised crime and actions against the security of the States and the Rule of Law.

Let me also say that we believe in all States' right to protect themselves from
 those who try to break them away. This prerogative is in almost all European Constitutions.

In Germany's Constitution, for example, there is a prohibition for landers to become independent States. That's what the Constitutional Court ruled in January 2017: "In the Federal Republic of Germany, which is a nation-state based on the constituent power of the German people, states are not 'masters of the constitution'". "Therefore there is no room under the constitution for individual states to attempt to secede. This violates the constitutional order".

Moreover, article 21 of the German Basic Law stresses that "parties that, by reason of their aims or the behaviour of their adherents, seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court shall rule on the question of unconstitutionality". Spanish constitution has never gone so far. But you can be sure that any Judge in Spain, either regional, national or from the Supreme Court, would dare to give a legal shelter to a German political party, movement or individual who were trying to break the German constitutional order. It is a matter of confidence and trust.

However, last week a regional court in Germany has considered that Mr. Puigdemont - leader of the separatists who proclaimed the fake Catalonian Republic and then escaped from Justice - cannot be judged in Spain for his crimes. Will all due respect, something is not working in our Union when a regional court can overrule in only two days the criterion of a national Supreme Court elaborated dunng six months of detailed and exhaustive investigation and based on legally demonstrable evidences. And without possibility to appeal to a higher Court.

Let me be clear. Spain belongs to Eu rope. We believe in this European common project and we are ready to fight for it. But this Union is possible only if we can rely on each other and if we support each other when one of us is being attacked. That is what Europe means.

Once I said that, this is a legal case and the judges, prosecutors and couris are the responsible. Not the politicians. So let the Justice make its work. It is therefore my desire and my duty to not interfere in their job. And I ask you to do the same. Let us not convert this Parliament in a parallel Court.

I hope you find reasonable my arguments. We can disagree on many things and in many different ways. But there is one reality. The founding principles of the Union are being poisoned and nationalism is the poison. If we do not act on time, sooner or later we will regret it.

With my warmest regards, 

Esteban González Pons

Head of the EP Spanish Delegation
EPP Group Vice President

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