The Spanish Constitutional Court has suspended the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Article published at the Catalan News Agency, February 17th, 2016.

Barcelona (CNA).- The new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, headed by pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’s top member, Raül Romeva, has been suspended. The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) accepted this Tuesday the appeal presented by the Spanish executive, which considers the Catalan government to have exceeded the competences in matters of foreign action specified in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Thus, the new Ministry and its competences will be suspended at first for five months, which is the period that the TC has to study whether the new Ministry is in line with the Spanish Constitution. In November, the TC unanimously approved the suspension of the Parliament’s declaration of independence as well as the appeal made by the Spanish government to stop the reform of Catalonia’s Tax Agency.

Puigdemont: “We will continue to do foreign action”

At this Wednesday’s plenary session, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has defended the legitimacy of the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the task of Raül Romeva, who he assured “will continue to be the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs”. “There is no doubt that wewill continue to do foreign action” he stated “there is no way we will renounce to it”. 

Read the full article here.