The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has called for Spain to not use the "argument of force" against Catalonia, rather the "force of argument", in a tweet sent shortly after the Catalan Parliament approved the declaration of independence.
For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) 27 octobre 2017
Catalan President Puigdemont, in turn, responded via his own Twitter account, also in English:
Dialogue has been, and will always be, our choice to solve political situations and achieve peaceful solutions. @CharlesMichel https://t.co/6sRWiGfHvO
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) 27 octobre 2017
At the European Council meeting held on the 19th and 20th October, Tusk had said that "the situation in Spain is worrying but the position of the [European] institutions is clear: there's no room for international mediation". He added that "we all have our emotions and ideas on the topic of Catalonia, but formally there's no margin for an EU intervention".