The work of MEPs in the European Parliament is primarily a response to the institutional activity generated by the House itself, but equally, the concentration of representatives from all over Europe here offers unique opportunities for political work and back-door diplomacy. For although the European Union is a club of states, many MEPs come to Brussels from stateless nations. From the beginning of the legislature we decided that we had to make the most of this circumstance, and that at a time when sovereignty processes are underway in the different peoples of Europe, it was a great waste of energy for the Corsicans, the Flemish, the Basques, the Basques, the Catalans, the Scots, the Welsh… to act separately without being aware of and without taking into account the synergies between us.
In this direction, we began to set up a space of MEPs for the right to self-determination, firstly to exchange knowledge of our processes, and secondly, to periodically place in the European Parliament the discourse in favour of the right to self-determination, since the moment demanded, in our opinion, a pedagogy around this democratic basis in the European institutions.
Coinciding with the start of the parliamentary term -2019-, the growth of the extreme right and Euroscepticism on the one hand, and the citizens’ alienation from Europe caused by the poor response of the European institutions to the debt crisis of 2008, the Parliament and the Commission launched the Conference on the Future of Europe, where the MEPs’ Self-Determination Caucus met its first challenge. The debate on the future of Europe was to enable the citizens to raise the right to become a state of stateless European nations and to present it as an instrument for peace and stabilization. In this way, we managed to get two MEPs (ERC, EHBildu) into the plenary assembly of the conference and to ensure that the call for the right of self-determination of the European stateless nations was present both in the conference as a whole and in the thematic working groups that were set up. In fact, the right of self-determination for European stateless nations was the second most voted proposal among the initiatives listed in the citizens’ panels.
On the other hand, and pending the success of the Conference, the members of the Self-Determination Caucus decided to launch another initiative that would contribute to the extension of the right of self-determination, and in this direction, a study was commissioned to a group of experts specifically constituted by Eusko Ikaskuntza and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans to analyze from a legal point of view how the right of self-determination could be applied without modifying the European treaties. This work was presented to the members of the SD Caucus last November and, after being taken on board by the MPs, a public presentation was held in Brussels with the support of the presidents of Corsica, the Basque Autonomous Community and Catalonia. As the European Parliament’s term of office draws to a close, the experts’ report will be one of the main lines of work for the next term of office (2024-2029), the political-institutional management that MEPs will have to carry out.
It would be lengthy to explain the proposal drawn up jointly by Eusko Ikaskuntza and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, but in brief it could be summarized in three main concepts. Firstly, the emphasis on the obligation to negotiate between the parties as a democratic basis. Second, the call for the universal right to self-determination as enshrined in international law. And thirdly, what would be called the natural right of a nation to become a state and remain a member of the European Union after having taken the decision to become a state or the natural enlargement of the European Union internally. The work shows that all this is possible without any amendment to the Lisbon Treaty or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
“Union in diversity” has been the motto of the European Union for years. But the member states have relied on a limited and particular understanding of diversity, based on the simple structures of the states. States face the democratic challenge of taking diversity into account in a real way, because the state is not the only national political subject today.
In the course of the SD Caucus’ work, we have tried to underline a number of ideas. On the one hand, the right of self-determination is an instrument for conflict resolution, i.e. for consolidating the European value of peace: when so many question the process of European integration, we stateless peoples do not come to create problems, but to offer solutions. The citizens of stateless nations believe in Europe, Europeanism is evident and they are deep anchors of European political integration.
On the other hand, we have stressed that we share the motto “Unity in diversity”, but diversity should not be limited to the existing states, but also to the reality of the stateless peoples. The political map of today’s Europe responds to changes brought about by historical events which have not ceased and which the stateless peoples will undoubtedly continue to change.
The end of the European legislature has brought the work of the SD Caucus to a standstill until the 10th legislature, which will begin in mid-July. From July onwards, the SD Caucus will be reorganized with the new MEPs and, no doubt, the political-institutional elaboration of the legal work carried out previously. In the context of Commission President Von der Leyen’s warmongering speech on the war in Ukraine, it will be necessary to address cooperation between peoples and peace, a basic concept of the European Union, and to emphasize the respect due to the democratic exercise of the right to self-determination as an essential prerequisite for peace and international coexistence. In these turbulent times, the defense of the right to self-determination from the Basque Country is one of the most significant contributions that can be made to peace, both domestically and internationally.
