EFA Catalan candidate wants ‘internal’ enlargement for EU’s ‘stateless nations’

The head of the European Free Alliance (EFA) list for the upcoming European elections, Raül Romeva, called on the European Union on Saturday to prepare for a possible future “internal enlargement” in which “stateless nations” of the current member states become independent and join the EU club.

“We want to see the EU unite all the peoples of Europe as equals. That includes enlarging our neighbours in the Balkans and elsewhere, but it also means enlarging internally. The nations of Europe must be heard directly,” Romeva called on the European Free Alliance congress, which nominated him as its candidate to head the next Commission on Friday.

In his first speech as a candidate, Romeva, of the Catalan separatist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party, called on the EU to act as a “mediator” if “in the near future (…) the current stateless nations achieve their independence and become new member states”.

“The current treaties do not provide for such a situation, and that is why we must design the basic principles of a European response,” asked the former Catalan regional “foreign minister”, together with his partner in the team leading the EFA list for the 2024 European elections, the representative of the Danish minority in Germany, Maylis Rossberg.

The separatist politician remains barred from holding public office in Spain until 2030 following a conviction related to the 2017 secessionist attempt in Catalonia. Still, his appointment as head of the ERC list does not mean – per se – that he will be on the party’s list for the EU elections, which are expected to be drawn up in the first half of 2024.

This will be what is known in EU jargon as the “Spitzenkandidat”, the informal process by which each European political family presents a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, although there is no obligation for the candidate of the winning political group in the elections to preside over the EU executive for the next term of office.

(Laura Zornoza | EFE-Brussels)