Flanders and Catalonia strengthen their partnership

Flanders and Catalonia are going to work closer together. This was agreed upon during a meeting between Flemish Minister-President Geert Bourgeois (N-VA) and the President of the Catalonian Government, Artur Mas, who was visiting Brussels. After all: “the more we collaborate, the more clout we have in Europe.”

During this visit, both regions renewed their mutual action programme for the next two years. Bourgeois and Mas also used this opportunity to sign a political declaration for a closer partnership within Europe. There are indeed striking similarities between Flanders and Catalonia. “Among other things, we share a desire for more autonomy,” says Bourgeois.

More Subsidiarity A principle that states that the lowest possible level at which a government is (still) effective is the most appropriate level from which to govern. It is for this reason that only the powers that a lower authority cannot exercise or cannot exercise well are allocated to a centralised or higher authority, and vice versa. The idea behind this is that political decisions are best made and executed as closely to the citizens as possible. subsidiarity
In this mutual declaration, both government leaders emphasise above all their commitment to reinforce the subsidiarity principle in European matters as well as their devotion to a Europe of the citizens being built from the ground up. That is also why they feel that the Member State parliaments must be heard more often in European decision-making.