Catalonia

Catalonia is one of Europe's historic nations, a Mediterranean land whose roots go back to the medieval County of Barcelona and Principality of Catalonia. Its language, Catalan, is the living pillar of a culture shared with the Balearic Islands, Valencia and southern France.

Recognised as a historical nationality, Catalonia governs itself under the Statute of Autonomy, first won in 1979 and expanded in 2006 — though key provisions were struck down by the Spanish Constitutional Court in 2010. It has its own Parliament, its own Government led by the President of the Generalitat and its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, but, unlike the Basque Country, no fiscal system of its own. With around 8 million inhabitants (2024), Catalonia is one of Europe's most dynamic economies, and its people and parliamentary majorities have repeatedly expressed their wish to decide their own future, as in the referendum of 1 October 2017.

A proud nation within Europe, Catalonia embodies a conviction at the very heart of the European Democrats' vision: that strong territories and a strong Europe are not rivals but allies, and that the right of Europe's peoples — Catalans among them — to determine their own political future deserves to be heard within the Union.