European parliamentarians from the two parties of the Catalan government have written to Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, calling for a pan-European plan which includes lockdown measures, in order to jointly address the coronavirus crisis.
The letter, signed by Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Posatí of JxCat, and Diana Riba (ERC), along with six other MEPs, points out that, after the 286,450 positives and 16,465 deaths from Covid-19 throughout Europe, "the priority of the European Commission, the Member States and the institutions involved in controlling the crisis should be saving lives."
For this reason, the MEPs call for a pan-European plan coordinated with the member states that includes the ability to close down all non-essential services.
The plan, the say, should allow the Commission to establish which cities, regions or states have to be partially or totally confined. This measure would, for example, allow the Conca de Ódena area, the area inland from Barcelona which is severely affected by coronavirus cases, to be isolated without Spanish government authorisation.