Protest in the Swedish parliament for the use of the EU as a weapon against the yes to independence

The president of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Swedish parliament, Carl Schlyter, believes that the debate on how an independent Catalonia would fit into the EU ‘cannot be used as an argument or an ‘excuse’ in the electoral campaign. ‘Catalonia would meet all of the criteria’ for membership of the EU, he says, and he predicts that Spain ‘will see the benefits of having a good relationship with Catalonia’. In declarations to the ACN from the parliament in Stockholm, where this Thursday the Diplocat organised an event on the 27-S, Schlyter, a member of the Green party, said that if the Catalans ‘choose a different future’ the European governments will have to ‘react’.

The Council for Public Diplomacy of Catalonia (Diplocat) this Thursday explained the independence process and the elections of 27 September to the Swedish parliament. In an act organised jointly with the Green party in Stockholm, and before the president of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the chamber, Carl Schlyter, the secretary general of the Diplocat, Albert Royo, commented that the Catalan president, Artur Mas, may be ‘judged and imprisoned’ in the coming weeks for having promoted the 9-N survey. Royo stressed that the Catalans have ‘repeatedly’ asked the Spanish government for a referendum, but that this has been refused and that the ‘last way out’ is the 27-S poll.

‘A real referendum would be better’, says Schlyter

‘Democracy should be fair,’ the president of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the chamber, Carl Schlyter, assured to the ACN. Schlyter regretted that the Catalans have to vote on independence ‘in a complicated way’ on the 27-S, without a binding referendum, because the Spanish government ‘denies one’. ‘It would be much better if you could have a real referendum, at least everyone could give their opinion fairly, and this is the base for everyone to respect the decision,’ he said.

Schlyter, a member of the Green party in Sweden, assured that the European governments ‘will not want to interfere with what the Catalans choose.’ ‘But if the Catalans choose a different future, obviously we will have to react,’ he predicted. ‘If a new state wants to come into the EU, why should we refuse?’ the Swedish parliamentarian asked, stressing that Catalonia would meet the ‘democratic, human rights and economic’ requirements for entry. ‘It cannot be used as an argument, the EU cannot be used as an excuse in this referendum.’ Schlyter warned.

The president of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Swedish parliament admitted that Spain could have ‘a veto’ on adhesion and that this would be ‘a problem’. In any case, Schlyter said that ‘if the conclusion of the process is an unhappy marriage, the best thing would be to be good friends,’ ‘I am sure that the people of Spain will see the benefits of having a good relationship with Catalonia, whatever is decided,’ he pointed out, because ‘it is always better to get on well with your neighbours.’