Barcelona/BrusselsJunts has chosen a political family in Europe. After being left without one in 2018Carles Puigdemont's party is on the verge of joining the European Democratic Party (EDP), which is part of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Several sources consulted by ARA explain that the pro-independence party is finalizing its entry, although the maneuver has stalled at the last minute due to internal reservations within the centrist and social-liberal European party.
Both sides have almost secured membership, but approval from the executive committee and the various parties within the European Union is still needed. It is at this point that differences have arisen. Some criticize the Secretary General, the Italian Sandro Gozi, for negotiating the incorporation of the Junts per Catalunya party without much transparency and without considering the opinions of different viewpoints, and some also oppose it for political reasons.
One of the parties within the PDE coalition that is creating the most obstacles is the Belgian party Les Engagés, which has only one member of the European Parliament. It is a French-speaking, centrist party and therefore ideologically distinct from the Flemish NVA, with whom the Junts per Catalunya coalition has historically maintained a very good relationship. The party's president and Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, himself referred to Puigdemont as a "friend" when the former Catalan president arrived in Waterloo. Although De Wever has moderated the party's stance, the NVA is part of the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament.
Contacts between Junts, which has already proposed joining the European Parliament "before Christmas," and the European People's Party (EPP) date back some time. Despite this, there is no prospect of imminent approval. Should the EPP's executive committee give the green light, the admission must then be ratified at a party congress. One is held annually—usually in the autumn—and the last one took place in Bilbao last November. Progress could be made if the EPP decides to organize an extraordinary congress to expedite Junts's accession, something the same sources consider highly unlikely.
In any case, the path is clear to secure membership in the PDE, founded by former French Prime Minister François Bayrou, a centrist party. The PDE, which also includes the PNB and the Canarian Coalition, is situated within the social-liberal center and also includes more progressive liberals. Some even recall the experiment of former Barcelona mayor Pasqual Maragall, who, after leaving office, explored Bayrou's idea with the Catalan European Party.
The liberals are the fifth largest group in the European Parliament with 77 MEPs, but they play an important role because they are part of what is known as the pro-European majority, along with the European People's Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). These are the forces that, with the broader support of the Greens and part of the ECR, provide parliamentary support to Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission, although voting discipline in the European Parliament is much more fluid than, for example, in the Parliament of Catalonia or the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
The future of Comín
The Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) was expelled from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament in 2018 under the pretext of corruption and in a context of intense pressure from Ciudadanos, which was also part of the MEP group. Since then, it has been left adrift and, despite some attempts, it has not yet managed to enter any European-level matches.
However, even if the talks are successful, it won't automatically mean that Junts' elected MEP Toni Comín will join the Renew Europe group if he is recognized as a full-fledged MEP. Some parties have MEPs in various parliamentary groups. For example, with CiU, the representatives of Convergència joined ALDE, while the Christian Democrats of Unió opted for the European People's Party (EPP).
As of today, however, Comín cannot serve as a Member of the European Parliament because Spanish authorities require him to swear allegiance to the Constitution in person in Madrid to obtain his seat. The amnesty has not yet been applied to him, and therefore he would risk arrest if he were to enter Spanish territory. In any case, if he manages to serve as an MEP, he will have to negotiate joining one of the parliamentary groups, as he unsuccessfully attempted to do in the previous legislature. The trend is for MEPs from the European Democratic Party (EDP) and the Liberal Alliance to join Renew Europe, but there are exceptions. It should be remembered that the Junts per Catalunya coalition has three official ideological currents—liberal, social democratic, and left-wing—and that Comín belongs to the left-wing faction.