European Commission doesn’t want ‘to influence’ the Catalan elections as they are ‘a choice of voters’

The vice-president of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis has assured that Brussels ‘has no intention of influencing’ the Catalan elections which ‘are now really the decision of the voters’. The former Latvian prime minister, commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue added this today, after the community spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, warned yesterday that if a part of a member state becomes independent ‘the Treaties would no longer apply in the territory’ and ‘it would become a third state’ that would have to ‘apply for membership of the EU’. Dombrovskis reminded that the Commission ‘makes no comments’ on the elections, and that it is ‘willing to work with the democratically chosen authorities’.

‘Now it is really in the hands of the voters,’ Dombrovskis admitted. At a breakfast on economic governance at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, a journalist asked him about the consequences of the Greek elections this Sunday and the plebiscitary elections of 27-S, assuming that an independent Catalonia would remain out of the EU: ‘What is your message to the Catalans?’ Dombrovskis answered, ‘The European Commission normally makes no comments about the policies of the parties in the member states or their regions, and now the choice really depends on the voters; therefore, from this point of view we cannot say much about the elections or the different implications of voting either way, because it is certainly not our intention to influence the voting in the member states or regions. It is really therefore now in the hands of the voters. As the Commission has always said, we are prepared to work with the authorities democratically chosen or appointed in the member states.’

It was precisely Dombrovskis who in 2013, when he was prime minister of Latvia, maintained that ‘attention has to be paid’ to the Catalan sovereigntist process. When asked if he would recognise an independent Catalonia, he admitted, ‘Frankly we do not yet have an official position on such matters, but if there is legitimacy in the process I would say, theoretically, why not?’ Juncker’s current vice-president warned that in the case of a unilateral declaration, the situation ‘might be more complicated’, but he did not close the door on recognition. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, protested and called the Latvian ambassador in Madrid to demand a rectification, but Dombrovskis refused. ‘The prime minister said what he said and does not want to go back on anything,’ answered his spokesperson.