The Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, conveyed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Catalonia’s commitment to Ukraine and its “condemnation of Putin’s aggression”. In the context of her institutional trip to Stockholm, where this conflict is being felt with particular intensity, Serret shared that the Government of Catalonia has allocated 51 million euros to “address the crisis in Ukraine during the two years of the war”, with actions including the welcoming of refugees and cooperation on the ground.

The Minister also guaranteed the Catalan Government’s commitment to the reconstruction phase in Ukraine, “a reconstruction that we want to carry out in an aligned manner, cooperating with the whole of Europe”. “We want to continue building the framework of democracy and freedom that should perpetually define the European project”, she added.

On this first day of her trip, the Minister for Foreign Action, accompanied by the Generalitat de Catalunya’s delegate to the Nordic and Baltic countries, Montserrat Riba, also met with language representatives from the Ministry of Culture, to whom she conveyed the arguments in favour of the official status of Catalan in European institutions.

At the same time, she asserted that the Catalan Government would keep the pressure on Madrid to ensure that the official status of Catalan remains on the European agenda: “On Monday, I conveyed to Minister Albares that this is a priority for the Catalan Government and that we must make every effort to ensure that the proposal is not unnecessarily delayed and remains on the table of the Council of the European Union”, Serret said.

A new budget to continue generating opportunities for internationalisation

For Serret, trips like this exemplify the work of the Ministry for Foreign Action and European Union in creating opportunities for the internationalisation of the country and benefiting the citizens of Catalonia. And in order to be able to continue this work, the Minister has celebrated the agreement for the 2024 Catalan budget, a “positive and expansive” budget, which will enable “the continuation of foreign initiatives that are beneficial to the citizens of Catalonia”.

Specifically, the Minister expressed satisfaction with the sustained growth of the Ministry’s budget since its establishment eight years ago, which exceeds 100 million euros once again. Furthermore, she specifically highlighted the allocation of 47.8 million euros for development cooperation, a “national policy” that will receive its highest funding in the last 15 years. And also the 19.4 million euros to deploy the network of delegations and continue expanding them, with two scheduled to open next year, in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.