The President of the Government, Pere Aragonès, spoke on Wednesday at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels during the conference 'Ensuring the right to self-determination within the EU,' where he stated, "Today they say that a referendum is impossible, but through perseverance and democratic empowerment, it will become achievable".

The conference was organised by the Self-Determination Caucus, the group of Members of the European Parliament advocating for a European mechanism of clarity so that the non-state nations of the EU can exercise self-determination.

"We are here to build a shared future for all the peoples and nations of Europe, for the challenges we face" and to"strengthen the European project" said the President at the close of the conference, in which the Basque president, Iñigo Urkullu, and the President of the Executive Council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, also took part.

Aragonès reaffirmed that "Catalonia will always be an ally in the challenges shared with other European peoples and nations" and he spoke of the sovereignty conflict Catalonia has with Spain, declaring that "democracy is always the solution" and that the people of Catalonia"have always expressed themselves in order to resolve this conflict through democracy".

With regard to the future and more specifically the future of Europe, the head of the executive commented that "the future can only be built through more democracy" pointing out that "Catalans have always advocated for democracy and for the exercise of our sovereignty through democracy, as we showed on 1 October 2017 and will do so again today".

The Self-Determination Caucus

The Self-Determination Caucus is a group of Members of the European Parliament from different parties that was created in 2021 to defend and promote the right to self-determination of the stateless peoples and nations of the EU. The aim of this group is to promote dialogue, democracy, and the right of European nations to freely decide their future and advocate for the creation of a European Democratic Mechanism for Clarity.

The event also featured several experts who have developed the proposal for a regulation of the EU to incorporate an instrument to ensure non-discrimination based on nationality regarding European citizenship in cases of democratic exercise of the right to self-determination in the EU. Among these experts is Marc Sanjaume, the president of the Academic Council for the Clarity Agreement.