{"id":6153,"date":"2012-10-02T13:33:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T12:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.widmann.org.uk\/?p=6153"},"modified":"2012-10-02T13:33:33","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T12:33:33","slug":"viviane-reding-on-catalan-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/viviane-reding-on-catalan-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Viviane Reding on Catalan independence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nPress conference by Viviane Reding<\/a>
\nOriginally uploaded by EU Social<\/a>
\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Viviane Reding’s recent words about Catalonia’s continued membership of the EU has attracted a fair amount of attention in Scotland (see for instance the SNP’s press release<\/a>).<\/p>\n

However, this is important enough that it’s worth going back to the source. It appears she made her comment in an interview with the Spanish (not Catalan) newspaper El Diario de Sevilla<\/a><\/i>. Here are the interesting bits together with my translation:<\/p>\n

\n

[DdS:] Catalu\u00f1a plantea actualmente la posibilidad de independizarse. Pero si lo hace deber\u00eda abandonar la UE y negociar su ingreso. Adem\u00e1s, desde su salida habr\u00eda un agujero en la libertad circulaci\u00f3n de personas y bienes en la Uni\u00f3n. [Catalonia is currently raising the possibility of becoming independent. But if it goes ahead, it would have to leave the EU and negotiate its entry terms. Moreover, as soon as it left there would be a hole in the freedom of movement of people and goods within the Union.<\/i>]<\/p>\n

[VR:] No querr\u00eda inmiscuirme en asuntos de pol\u00edtica espa\u00f1ola, pero no pienso ni por un segundo que Catalu\u00f1a quiera dejar la UE. Conozco a los catalanes desde hace mucho tiempo, he sido una de las pocas personas no catalanas en recibir la Cruz de Sant Jordi, y s\u00e9 que su sentimiento es profundamente europeo. [I would not want to interfere in matters of Spanish politics, but I do not think for a second that Catalonia wants to leave the EU. I have known the Catalans for a long time, I was one of the few non-Catalan to receive the Cross of Sant Jordi, and I know that they feel profoundly European.<\/i>]<\/p>\n

[DdS:] No le pregunto por la posibilidad de que Catalu\u00f1a quiera o no ser parte de la UE, sino por el proceso que se abre cuando dejen de serlo. Lo dice la Convenci\u00f3n de Viena: el Estado resultante de un Estado matriz abandonar\u00e1 todos los organismos internacionales en los que la matriz est\u00e9 representada. [I am not asking whether Catalonia wants to be part of the EU or not, but about the process that begins when Catalonia ceases to be a member. The Vienna Convention says this: the state resulting from a parent state leaves all international organisations in which the parent is represented.<\/i>]<\/p>\n

[VR:] Vamos, hombre, la legislaci\u00f3n internacional no dice nada que se parezca a eso. Por favor, resuelvan sus problemas de pol\u00edtica interna en Espa\u00f1a. Yo conf\u00edo en la mentalidad europea de los catalanes. [Come on, international law does not say anything like that. Please solve your internal political problems within Spain. I trust the European mentality of the Catalans.<\/i>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m finding the leading questions by the Diario de Sevilla almost as interesting as Viviane Reding’s answers. If they’re typical of the Spanish discourse outwith Catalonia, it’s clear the Catalans are facing a monumental struggle to become independent.<\/p>\n

Update (18\/10\/12)<\/i>: It seems the European Commission under pressure from Spain have been trying to deny Reding said this. Read the full story and listen to the actual interview (which was conducted in English) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Press conference by Viviane Reding Originally uploaded by EU Social Viviane Reding’s recent words about Catalonia’s continued membership of the EU has attracted a fair amount of attention in Scotland (see for instance the SNP’s press release). However, this is important enough that it’s worth going back to the source. It appears she made her comment in an interview with the Spanish (not Catalan) newspaper El Diario de Sevilla. Here are the interesting bits together with my translation: [DdS:] Catalu\u00f1a plantea actualmente la posibilidad de independizarse. Pero […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,161,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en","category-es","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}