The Catalan cabinet has decided this Tuesday to halt the "liquidation" of Diplocat, the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia, started by Mariano Rajoy's Spanish government using article 155 of the Constitution. According to the presidency minister, Elsa Artadi, the agreement nullifies the nomination of the liquidating body approved by the Spanish cabinet. Diplocat was a public-private consortium tasked with promoting Catalonia internationally.
Artadi noted that Diplocat couldn't be closed through the courts, being protected by Constitutional Court case law, nor was it included in the Spanish Senate's agreement backing the use of article 155. The action against it was decided upon by the Spanish government after the Senate vote.
For the Catalan government, Diplocat's closure was "completely irregular", for which reason certain members of its board of trustees brought legal initiatives to try and slow it down or stop it. Now, the Catalan government has decided to get involved too.
As a consequence, the agreement includes a meeting of its board of trustees, which is chaired by the Catalan president, Quim Torra, to be called immediately.
The board of trustees remains the same as before the Spanish government closed the organisation. It remains to be seen if and how other staff are brought back on board after the liquidation attempt.
"Without doubt, the wish of the department of foreign action remains being to take up action abroad again with the wish to expand, guarantee and strengthen Catalonia's presence in Europe and the world," Artadi said.
Diplocat has its origins in the Patronat Català Pro Europa (Catalan Pro-Europe Board of Trustees), created in 1982, which was renamed the Patronat Catalunya Món (Catalonia World Board of Trustees) in 2007.