The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, attended a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the European Parliament’s office in Barcelona, At the event, held in the auditorium of La Pedrera, he stated that Catalonia is a pro-European society: “Catalonia is a country committed to Europe”,adding that Europe “is part of our identity, of our most essential values”.He went on to stress that “Europe, without a doubt, is the priority area of Catalonia’s foreign action”.

At the event, which celebrates 25 years of the European Parliament’s office in the city of Barcelona, President Aragonès highlighted “the commitment of the institutions of Catalonia to the European institutions through this joint endeavour”. A commitment that has been carried out “over many, many years, many decades, since we recovered self-government”. Aragonès said that building strong relations has been a “priority task” and added that in some areas such as energy and technological sovereignty, relations have been intensified.

President Aragonès referred to the upcoming European elections on 9 June, acknowledging that “they will be important for Europe”,as “Europe faces many challenges in the geopolitical sphere, as well as a need to strengthen economic growth”, the aim of which would be that “Europe continue to be an umbrella not only for the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Catalonia, but also for progress and economic prosperity”.

With regard to the official status of Catalan in Europe, Aragonès stressed that “we have been defending and will continue to defend the presence of Catalan as an official language in the European Union”,arguing that Catalan is a language spoken by more than 10 million European citizens and that “it has all the characteristics and meets all the requirements for it to be used fully in all European institutions”. Furthermore, he stated his belief that this official status “is a question of linguistic equality; it is not a question of favourable treatment, it is not a privilege”.

Finally, the President of the Generalitat pointed out that “we have a war being fought on European soil due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and as such Aragonès stressed the commitment of the Government of the Generalitat “to the people of Ukraine, to its sovereignty, to its territorial integrity, to its independence”.

The event was also attended by the Head of the Office of the European Parliament in Barcelona, Sergi Barrera, and the President of the European Parliament between 2002 and 2004, Pat Cox.