European Parliament urged to tackle referendum day violence

The European Parliament has received in the past six months around 40 requests from citizens who ask the chamber to tackle democracy and the political situation in Catalonia. The appeals also include the Spanish police violence during the referendum on independence held in Catalonia on October 1. The complaints were filed by the Committee on Petitions (PETI), whose secretariat proposes to declare most of the requests “unacceptable” for not being within the competence of the EU. Yet this is only a suggestion, as “it is for the members of the committee to assess all the petitions and to decide whether they are declared acceptable or unacceptable,” according to parliamentary sources.

Pro-independence Esquerra MEP Josep Maria Terricabras, member of the PETI, said that it is inappropriate to reject the requests for this reason, as the European Parliament has already debated about the situation in Catalonia. The Catalan representative also told the Catalan News Agency that a decision about accepting these complaints “has not been taken” by the members of this committee yet. Terricabras reminded that the secretariat’s position is not binding and it is for the MEPs in the PETI to decide over the issue.