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Letter to the European Parliament

Dear Members of the European Parliament,

The bearers of this letter, persons belonging to the Catalan nation, represent here today -with one single voice- thousands of people who have made a point of coming to Brussels to insist upon our rights as a distinct European people who aspire to full and direct integration, with no intermediaries, in the European Union. This assertion and aspiration, although legitimate, has not yet received the institutional recognition it deserves.

We have come to Brussels, the capital of the European Union, in pursuit of an ideal embarked upon twenty-seven years ago. On the 11th of October, 1982, a delegation of hundreds of people belonging to Catalan civil society, demonstrated in the streets of Strasbourg and then delivered a document to the European Parliament requesting full membership of the Catalan nation to the European institutions, as a distinct European people entitled to sovereignty. This event took place four years before the Kingdom of Spain became a full member of the European Community. This delegation, already stressing our European calling, was received very warmly by the then Vice President of the European Parliament, M. Pierre Pfimlin, after listening with great attention to the delegation's reading of a letter. Notwithstanding, the letter received a disappointing reply from this prominent representative of the European Parliament, inferring that the time was not yet ripe to consider the reception of the Catalan people into the European institution, as was requested by the delegation. Even so, he promised to ensure that the document he had been handed would be passed on to the Members of the European Parliament.

It is nearly three decades since that delegation travelled to Strasbourg. Since then, the European Community has continued to grow and has become the present European Union, an institution which assumes as one of its fundamental principles and objectives of our Continent a project of Union in Diversity among all the citizens and peoples that constitute it. This definition surely indicates a step forward in the process towards the understanding of what Europe really is: a mosaic of languages, cultures and nations which cannot be reduced to their representation by acknowledged states. Currently there are already twenty-seven states belonging to the European Union, eight of which did not exist when the European Community was founded, simply because the collective rights of the nations they represent had not yet then been duly recognised.

Since the time when the construction of the New Europe was first construed -based upon the constant strengthening of democratic and peaceful coexistence and upon the foundations of respect for human individual and collective rights- the Catalan people have always seen this project as the natural framework for their future freedom. We have often expressed this publicly, whether in the sphere of civil society, with repeated mass demonstrations before the European institutions, or within the European Parliament itself, when a majority of Catalan MEPs have requested that the Catalan language, culture and identity be respected and gradually gain official recognition. Likewise, at a Catalan institutional level, with several majority-backed parliamentary proposals expressing our insistence on the right to exercise self-determination, or petitioning the right to participate independently in decisions taken by the European Union on issues affecting Catalan interests.

The significance of thousands of Catalans coming to Brussels today must thus be seen within the framework and the grievances described above. Our gesture is proof of the perseverance in the defence of the rights of the Catalan people. But it is also a warning call and criticism of the divisive, discriminating policies of the states, consented to by the European institutions, and which put Catalonia in a situation that hinders it from taking its proper place in the construction of this Union in Diversity. We consider that overcoming the limitations imposed arbitrarily upon the Catalan people, and which hamper our fully fledged front-line participation in the construction of the European Union, will only be feasible if we can exercise all our collective rights, beginning with the right to self-determination. We affirm with conviction that only by defending individual and collective rights can we build democracy, coexistence and peace, that is to say, the European Union. We are not appealing for any exceptional privilege. We simply wish to speak out for the principles that best represent the progress of humanity, to be recognised as a normal people within the European Union and, according to the norms established by the United Nations, to organise ourselves according to the free will of the Catalan people.

We are aware that the voice of civil society holds a very different weight from that of the duly elected representatives to the European Parliament. Nevertheless, we are very aware that our voice is not only complementary to these representatives, but is also a testimony to what people believe and express beyond the institutional sphere. Symptomatically, the two largest demonstrations staged in the streets of Barcelona in the last few years (18.2.2006 and 1.12.2007), with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in each case, have had the inalienable right of the Catalan people to decide their future as their central motive.

The European Parliament, with its elected members who directly represent society as a whole, shows it is open to resolving the problems of the Europeans beyond the interests of each individual constituent state. Thus, for instance, with the aim of advancing the rights of their peoples, it has contributed to solving the issues of Montenegro and Kosovo by supporting their access to statehood. Should it not carry on along this path in the case of the Catalan people and that of so many other Europeans who are objectively in similar circumstances? If it were to act upon this principle, the European Parliament, would not only have the support of the Catalan people, but would also better comply with the new United Nations doctrine for self-determination, furthered by several declarations on the rights of peoples.

Before concluding this letter, we wish to thank you for your welcome and consideration. We further venture to request that you become not only depositaries of our request but also effective mediators, working coherently and faithfully for the European Union's objective of constructing the Union in Diversity, without fissure nor discrimination.

Brussels, 5th March 2009

On behalf of 10Mil a Brussel·les per l'Autodeterminació.