 I shall read the statement, and then I will take the questions. The European Union's response to the Catalonia crisis has been hypocritical, and it has been logically incoherent. It is hypocritical because, while opposing explicitly the undermining of the independence of Poland's judiciary, as well as the cartailing of civic freedoms in places like Hungary, the European Union remains silent in relation to the systematic violation of civil liberty, and indeed of the rule of law in Catalonia during and after the disputed 1st of October referendum. It is logically incoherent, because by barricading itself behind the argument that the European Union is a Union of States, not of peoples or of riches, the European Union is arming the Catalan independence movement with a powerful motive to create a state. Moreover, the European Union has been responsible for exacerbating the discontent in Catalonia in at least two ways. Under the policies of austerity since 2010, mixed with the massive banker's bailouts, the European Union sought to contain the crisis, a crisis of its own making by cartailing the member states sovereignty, Madrid's sovereignty, and Madrid exploited these policies to diminish Catalonia's sovereignty in 2010 and beyond. Secondly, before the Europe was created, Catalonia had a trade deficit with the rest of the world, and a large surplus with the rest of Spain, even after fiscal transfers, are taken into consideration. But following Europe's mishandling of the euro crisis after 2010 and the austerity measures imposed across Spain, Catalonia's trade deficit with the rest of the world turned into a 5% GDP surplus, while at the same time Catalonia's trade at fiscal position in relation to the rest of Spain caused wages to fall, both in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain, and big business profit margins to rise across the whole of Spain. In summary, Catalonia was Germanized in a manner that boosted tensions between the region and the rest of Spain. This is why we are saying, as DiEM25, that this is indeed a European crisis. And to pretend otherwise is not to accept our responsibilities as Europeans. DiEM25 rejects all nationalities and every variety of authoritarians. We're not going to take a position on whether Catalonia should or should not be independent. What we're doing is, in addition to asking for the restoration of civil liberties and of sanity, we believe that this is a remarkable opportunity for Europe, a formidable opportunity for a new progressive pan-European policy for dealing with such crises. Europe is not going to see in Catalonia the last such crisis. There will be other such crises. And we must have a unified, democratic European process for dealing with such crises. We believe that Europe should adopt four principles for dealing with such crises. Principle number one, a democratic European cannot tolerate the criminalization and persecution of peaceful political activities in support of a region's independence. The second principle, a region's authorities cannot proclaim independence merely on the basis of a simple or even an absolute majority. Third principle, the old-fashioned Vestalian notion of sovereignty and of citizenship, the idea of one nation, one sovereignty, one citizenship, is no longer consistent with a democratic European democratic union and must be redefined in a manner that permits multiple sovereignty and multiple citizenship. The fourth principle, which should apply in particular in member states and regions of the Eurozone, a functioning European monetary union requires more physical transfers, not fewer, to fund investment in the poorer regions of our monetary union, of our Eurozone, and lower trade surpluses as well as trade deficits between our regions and countries. This is what is necessary to stabilize the Eurozone and to make it a realm of shared prosperity as opposed to what it is now, which is shared misery. So a region's independence, to be sanctioned as part of a European Union and European Monetary Union, must go hand in hand with a reduction in deficits and surpluses between the regions of the union and increase in fiscal transfers with which to fund investment projects, in particular green energy, transport and green transition investment projects in the poorer regions of our countries and our union more generally. Catalonia may be in the news today, but it is unlikely that we are going to stop here. Already there are voices in Corsica, in parts of Italy, Scotland, which may or may not be part of the European Union by 2019, already had a referendum and is thinking of a second referendum. So Europe has to have a policy on the independence process. A well established process which respects the four principles that I outlined can be imagined, can be implemented, can be decided centrally across Europe. We believe, to give an example, that such a process must comprise six conditions which are necessary in order to respect the four principles. Those six conditions are, first, a necessary prerequisite for an independent referendum to be considered that the region's elections, like the ones you are going to be having in December, must be won with an absolute majority of voters by parties or coalition of parties that run in the election seeking a mandate for a legally binding referendum. Secondly, any subsequent referendum that takes place must take place in coordination with the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Parliament at the earliest one year after that election, regional election, so as to allow for a proper somber debate. Now, for the European Union to sanction the referendum and for continued membership of the Union, as well as of the Monetary Union, in the case of Caroline. The constitution of the new state and the authorities of the new state must commit, we believe, to the following four conditions. Guaranteeing freedom of movement between the new state and the rest of the European Union, including, of course, the rest of the old country, affording its citizens the right but no imposition of citizenship of the new state, of the old country and, of course, the European citizenship. Working together with European authorities to maintain at least the same level of fiscal transfers to the rest of the country, but not necessarily in the form of contributing to the Madrid government budget. Our proposal is that the fiscal transfers must continue, but must take the form of investment in the poorer areas of the rest of the country, that we see for instance, through investment projects that are designed and implemented at the European level. And finally, working together with European authorities to eliminate any trade surplus or deficit with the old country. To conclude, no one has the right to prohibit citizens of a European region from aspiring to statehood. At the same time, no European region can aspire to statehood and that wants to membership of a democratic, well-functioning European Union without respecting the basic principles of a democratic, well-functioning European Union. Continued membership of a democratic European Union must be made conditional on genuine, inter-regional solidarity, on freedom of movement, on multiple identities and citizenship and a commitment to ironing out economic, financial and social imbalances while investing into a green future. These are also the principles upon which DiEM25's European New Deal is built for every country and every region across Europe. Let me finish by saying that the formulation of a pan-European framework for dealing with European problems at simultaneously the local, the regional, the state and the European levels is what DiEM25 is all about. The proposals and the principles which are just outlined in the case of an independence project is only one example of DiEM25's progressive agenda for Europe. Our task is to seek pan-European solutions that democratize, stabilize, indeed civilize Europe turning it into an authentic union of cities, of regions, of states and indeed of peoples in Europe. Last night, after months of deliberation within DiEM25 amongst our 60,000 members, we came to, after a transnational vote where all our members across Europe here in Barcelona too voted we made another important decision. It is a decision to contest elections across Europe in support of the pan-European agenda part of which I outlined to you today and a message if you want to the people of Catalonia and to all of us across Europe who are going to try to do the hard job of democratizing Europe remember, none of us are going to be remembered by our victories in the cause of democracy we will be remembered for not giving in. Thank you. We have a general strike today in Catalonia. Do you think that actions like this try to impact the economy are an effective way to approach the conflict knowing the experience of course? I am not going to comment on particular forms of collective action collective action and democracy and democratic movements go hand in hand it is not my remit and so my job, my competency if you want to tell the people of Catalonia in which way they should pursue their struggle it is not my remit or job or competency to tell Catalans how to vote in an independent referendum the whole idea about democracy is that the demons decide how to act and in which particular way it wants to organize the transition from particular and contradictory views to outcomes and constitutions I am sure that you know that the Spanish government made a new law to allow the companies to put their headquarters outside of Catalonia what do you think about this measure that also affects the catalan economy and the relations between Catalonia and Spain? Capital flight within a European Union is a contradiction in terms people say to me what do you think about the European Union and the answer I usually give is it would be a great idea if we did have the European Union, we don't the idea that companies or banks are going to run away from one part of a European country or a union to another because of political uncertainty because of these kinds of conflicts is a reminder that we don't have a European Union in the United States of America there is no chance a company will leave San Francisco for Austin, Texas because of the fear of fragmentation the reason why we have the fear of fragmentation in the European Union is because we don't have a European Union and there are two ways of going about this either succumbing to the dynamic of disintegration or to create a genuine European Union in which case that would be my personal dreams personally it really doesn't matter whether a political process in Catalonia leads to a particular kind of arrangements regarding the self-management of this region or not very well we just had as well that in my own country every time there is yet another that put it politely inefficient policies are decided by the Europe on Greece more companies leave the country and they end up in Luxembourg or at least their headquarters end up in Luxembourg or somewhere else therefore depleting the capacity of our part of the economy social economies to reproduce themselves about the... he talked about the need for civil rights and similar things he wanted to talk about the Spanish justice and if you think that the movement is a political problem if you feel the movement of the president and the president talks about it to announce it and if there are some guarantees as a European I am ashamed that we have political prisoners in Spain as a European I feel that Europe's image when you see Mr. Puigdemont seeking asylum in Belgium our image has been shattered the rest of the world is looking at Europe saying what on earth is going on this was meant to be a union of democracies I cannot even begin to come to terms with the idea that politicians acting peacefully whether you agree with them or not politicians acting peacefully in the context of a political process pursuing their own mandate for which they have been elected can end up in prison or can end up seeking asylum within the European Union this is a blight on our collective European identity it is something that should end immediately I do not believe that any constitution of any country permitting that is worth a paper it is written on and it is about time that we remember the toxic effects of such developments throughout Europe my message to Jean-Claude Duker the president of the European Commission is really very simple what are you going to do if Hungary amends its constitution tomorrow and permits a further deterioration of civil liberties permits for instance the arrest of gay people is that going to be an internal Hungarian matter as well and is Europe going to have no opinion on this we are sliding very fast down a very slippery slope it's about time, civil liberties and I mentioned the word before sanity is restored to Europe more on the independence of justice more on the European Transparency the independence of Spanish justice and if we see it in this sense it is more effective no one can claim that he or she has a clean enough record to pass judgement on the justice system of a fellow European I come from a country where the justice system has many sins attached to its past and to its presence justice systems are never just they give us a chance of justice they are working problems like our democracies let's be fair to the judges you cannot expect a justice system to be perfect when our democracies are so heavy or imperfect we need to keep improving this is not the time to stoke up the fires of conflict and discontent this is the time to restore sanity the principles and policies that DiEM25 is espousing and the policies that I have put forward to you today I think would be a first step towards returning to a path where our executive our legislative legislature and our judiciary can recommence a path towards democracy across Europe you said in this summary that the regime's election must be first won with an absolute majority of the voters by a party or coalition proposing such a referendum this is what we had on the past elections we had a majority of parties that were not of voters so you specified that it has to be voters and parliamentaries so do you think that on the next elections in December although we don't have a coalition all the parties should be with the same no they don't have to be the same party list as long as voters voters vote for parties that support an independence process to the tune of 50% of the voters plus one this establishes a foundation on which to start the debate that is the point we make and remember this is not a policy proposal for Catalonia alone it is also for Scotland it is also for whichever other region in the European continent or context which is to embark upon such a project and therefore because there are there are parts of Italy for instance we have a first pass to post electoral system so you can have an absolute majority in the region with 30% of the votes so this is why we specified it must be 50% of voters plus one but since I mentioned Scotland allow me a quick comment from somebody who is coming from outside Catalonia and Spain from a Scottish perspective imagine if two years ago when the Scots had the referendum if the voters in Scotland had been beaten up by armed police and had been sent to hospital by armed police sent by London how would the situation would now be like in the United Kingdom Scotland that left the United Kingdom so it seems to me that as an outsider if I didn't know better the actions of the Madrid government are doing an enormous amount of work in favour of Catalonia independence it is as if they are trying very hard to get rid of Catalonia