Eduardo González
The Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) has warned that the new Foreign Action and European Union Corps of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government) could “affect the exclusive powers of the State.”
On May 21, the President of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, signed the new Law on Foreign Action and Relations with the European Union of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which modifies the previous 2014 Law and provides for the creation of the Foreign Action and European Union Corps of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
The new Catalan law was published on June 3 by the Official State Gazette (BOE), which noted in its preamble that “Title V of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia recognizes and defines the Generalitat’s relations with the European Union (Chapter II) and the different dimensions of its foreign action (Chapter III), regulating a widespread practice, setting new goals for European and international projection, and defining the instruments to achieve them.”
The main novelty of the new law is the creation of the Foreign Action and European Union Corps of the Generalitat de Catalunya, whose functions include facilitating “the establishment and maintenance of relations with governments and their representatives abroad, European Union institutions, international organizations, and territorial and sectoral cooperation networks” and “collaborating in the definition and implementation of mechanisms to support Catalan citizens and communities abroad.”
In this regard, the ADE warned in a statement on Tuesday that the new law assigns functions to the recently created Foreign Action Corps of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) (specifically, the two mentioned above) that, “depending on how they are implemented in practice, could affect the exclusive jurisdiction of the State established in Article 149 of the Constitution regarding international relations and emigration, as well as the consular assistance that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation provides to Spanish citizens abroad.”
“It is therefore essential that the development and application of this law be governed by the principles of good faith, respect for the constitutional order, and institutional loyalty,” it concluded.
