Adjunto a continuació l'article que m'han publicat al blog Catalan Views, que edita la Catalan News Agency (Agència Catalana de Notícies en la seva versió internacional). Més avall trobareu la versió en català de l'article.

Europe beyond the Member States: Spaces to decide and to incite (by Raül Romeva i Rueda on Thu, 30/12/2010)

Seen with Catalan glasses, the European construction is necessary but, as presently conceived, clearly insufficient. The European Union’s motto is “United in diversity”, a beautiful motto that, in general, universal terms, I share. However, when it is applied to the present European Union, I see it as incomplete, at a minimum. Taking the current Euro-reality into account, the motto “United in the diversity of the States” would be much more convenient. And this is, in my opinion, THE problem: the current States are, unfortunately, the main reason for European paralysis.

The vision we have of the European Union, from a country without its own State, such as Catalonia, is certainly very different from the vision from European capitals such as Madrid, London, Paris, Rome or Stockholm, to mention some of the big players, with a clear centralist will.

Luckily, there are real alternatives; alternatives that are at the same time social, economic, cultural, linguistic, national, historical, communicational, infrastructural, environmental, competence-related, etc… However, these alternatives are conditioned by two premises that are intrinsically linked: 1) Giving the European Union the legislative, budgetary, and political capacity that the current situation requires. A capacity ruled, on all these fronts, by a bicameral Parliament  –not like the system we have at present, where the European Parliament and the Council, i.e. the State Governments, share legislative competences– and with a European Executive, appointed by this Parliament; and 2) Decentralising the current Nation-States, most of them artificial, so that the European Union’s political-administrative management is decided by national realities –which do not have to coincide with the state’s.

Three examples, among many others, perfectly illustrate this change of direction scenario: a) Contrary to the centralist vision the Spanish Government proves to have in relation to the High-Speed Rail network, for instance, much more rational criteria should be imposed, in territorial, socio-economic and environmental terms, which will push for alternatives, such as a very necessary Mediterranean rail corridor; b) Secondly, regarding the cultural and linguistic dimension, one reminder is necessary. A Europe that underestimates, when it does not despise, languages and cultures, simply because they are those of an entire State, becomes an unfriendly Europe and it generates a Euro-frustration that is not at all beneficial to the European project; and c) Finally, regarding the management of primary resources (agriculture and fishing), socio-economically speaking, but also in environmental terms, it seems much more rational to structure the management of these resources to realities that do not necessarily have to correspond to those determined by current states.

In other words, and to cite the example of Catalonia (or even better, of the Catalan-speaking countries), what some of us are demanding is an EU where we are able to decide and incite. Decide and incite with our own voice and without interferences, which are unnecessary and, often, contrary to socio-economic sense, not to mention common sense.

Raül Romeva i Rueda, Member of the European Parliament for ICV and Vice-Chair of the Greens/EFA Group

 

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