This has ben copied and pasted from https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Acad_Main/News/Andreu%20Mas-Colell
TO ALL MEMBERS OF ACADEMIA EUROPAEA
Our distinguished colleague the international Economics scholar Professor Andreu Mas-Colell, is facing legal action by the Spanish authorities for events during his time serving the community in Catalonia as a Minister of Economy. (Andreu Mas-Colell is a former winner of the AE Erasmus Medal, a former AE Trustee, a former Secretary General of the European Research Council and he was a driving force behind the world class ICREA and establishment of the University Pompeu Fabra).
- Article in the London Times newspaper
- Article in The Guardian
- Former Section chair of the Economics, Business and Management Sciences section, Professor Klaus Zimmermann has signed the petition and published a statement at his website: http://www.klausfzimmermann.de/due-process-for-professor-andreu-mas-colell
From Prof. Jose Domingues Abrascal (sent 26 June 2021)
Dear Executive Secretary, dear Professor Coates,
I want to express my stronger opposition and condemnation to the use of the Academia Europaea for the purpose of questioning the rule of law in a democratic country which is member of the EU. It is hard to believe for me that you ask us to sing something without sending complete information about the activities for which Prof Mas-Colell is under investigation and what is the court that is investigating him. For your information it is the “Tribunal de Cuentas” (Public Accounts Court) of Spain.
I am not only surprised but strongly opposed to an action of support of someone under investigation by a court of a democratic country.
1. If you see the Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit of the Economist Group (publisher of the weekly newspaper The Economist), Spain is one of the not so many Full Democracies in the world. In the said index Spain is in a higher position than France, Japan, United States or Israel.
2. There is a political wish of part of the population of a region of Spain ( 45% of the population aprox. according to several sources) that would like to be independent.
3. Due to the representation system of the Catalonian parliament (rural areas have more representers than urban areas) political parties for independence control the regional parliament.
4. Spanish constitution does not allow for referendums of independence of different regions. When the Spanish constitution was written in 1978, the German Constitution was taken as a reference for this part of the text. The German constitution that does not allow for such a referendum. Many other democratic countries like the United States have similar treatment of regional referendums a do not allow for such kind of referendum.
5. The United Nations do not recognize self-determination right to regions of democratic countries as Catalonia.
6. The “Tribunal de Cuentas” is in charge a auditing the accounts of the different public administrations and administrators.
7. What the “Tribunal de Cuentas” is analyzing is how much public money was spent in the organization of an illegal referendum that was specifically forbidden by the Constitutional Court of Spain. The referendum and other illegal activities forbidden by the Spanish Constitutional Court was organized in 2017 with the support of the regional government in which Prof. Mas-Colell was responsible for its economic department.
8. Obviously, Prof Mas-Colell is an eminent scientist but the auditing of the accounts of which he was responsible in the government of Catalonia should be out of any doubt. That is the reason why he is under investigation.
9. Catalonia is one of the richest regions of Spain and among the rich regions of the EU. It is well known in economy that unity of market should go together with fiscal solidarity. The basic reason for independence is that since the EU now guaranties the unit of market, any rich region would be better off by not shearing their taxes with other no so rich. The same could be said for municipalities or even neighborhoods.
10. Catalonia is not under any kind of prosecution by the rest of Spain. The political autonomy of Catalonia within Spain is larger than that of any other European region.
I would like to beg you to stop using the Academia Europaea for questioning a democratic country and stop asking its members to sign letters without sending a complete, clear and non- biased information. Any other thing is simply a political activity that should be absolutely outside of the activities of the Academia Europaea.
Yours
Prof. José Dominguez
I want to express my stronger opposition and condemnation to the use of the Academia Europaea for the purpose of questioning the rule of law in a democratic country which is member of the EU. It is hard to believe for me that you ask us to sing something without sending complete information about the activities for which Prof Mas-Colell is under investigation and what is the court that is investigating him. For your information it is the “Tribunal de Cuentas” (Public Accounts Court) of Spain.
I am not only surprised but strongly opposed to an action of support of someone under investigation by a court of a democratic country.
1. If you see the Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit of the Economist Group (publisher of the weekly newspaper The Economist), Spain is one of the not so many Full Democracies in the world. In the said index Spain is in a higher position than France, Japan, United States or Israel.
2. There is a political wish of part of the population of a region of Spain ( 45% of the population aprox. according to several sources) that would like to be independent.
3. Due to the representation system of the Catalonian parliament (rural areas have more representers than urban areas) political parties for independence control the regional parliament.
4. Spanish constitution does not allow for referendums of independence of different regions. When the Spanish constitution was written in 1978, the German Constitution was taken as a reference for this part of the text. The German constitution that does not allow for such a referendum. Many other democratic countries like the United States have similar treatment of regional referendums a do not allow for such kind of referendum.
5. The United Nations do not recognize self-determination right to regions of democratic countries as Catalonia.
6. The “Tribunal de Cuentas” is in charge a auditing the accounts of the different public administrations and administrators.
7. What the “Tribunal de Cuentas” is analyzing is how much public money was spent in the organization of an illegal referendum that was specifically forbidden by the Constitutional Court of Spain. The referendum and other illegal activities forbidden by the Spanish Constitutional Court was organized in 2017 with the support of the regional government in which Prof. Mas-Colell was responsible for its economic department.
8. Obviously, Prof Mas-Colell is an eminent scientist but the auditing of the accounts of which he was responsible in the government of Catalonia should be out of any doubt. That is the reason why he is under investigation.
9. Catalonia is one of the richest regions of Spain and among the rich regions of the EU. It is well known in economy that unity of market should go together with fiscal solidarity. The basic reason for independence is that since the EU now guaranties the unit of market, any rich region would be better off by not shearing their taxes with other no so rich. The same could be said for municipalities or even neighborhoods.
10. Catalonia is not under any kind of prosecution by the rest of Spain. The political autonomy of Catalonia within Spain is larger than that of any other European region.
I would like to beg you to stop using the Academia Europaea for questioning a democratic country and stop asking its members to sign letters without sending a complete, clear and non- biased information. Any other thing is simply a political activity that should be absolutely outside of the activities of the Academia Europaea.
Yours
Prof. José Dominguez
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