New Political Statute for the Basque Country

The Lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe defended the opening of a new process of negotiation with the Spanish State on the new Statute envisaged in his proposal of Free Association. Whether these negotiations end in agreement or not, they will be followed by a referendum of Basque society. The proposal of a new Statute of Free Association that the Lehendakari has submitted to Parliament includes a definition of the powers that must be granted to this institution in order to consult Basque society through the holding of referendums.

Based on the concept of Basque citizenship, this initiative seeks recognition for Basque nationality. This would have the same validity as Spanish nationality and it would not be required to renounce one in order to enjoy the other.

With regard to relations with Navarre, the proposal states that both communities will build a common political project only in the case that the citizens of both communities should decide to do this, first on an individual basis and then jointly. In the case of Iparralde, the proposal supports the signing of treaties and bilateral agreements, based on the opportunities offered by cross-border co-operation.

The Lehendakari's initiative includes an extensive chapter on the judicial powers of the Basque Country. The highest authority in the Basque judiciary would be the Higher Courts of Justice of the Basque Country, which would assume the current powers of the Supreme Court. The work of the Supreme Court would be to unify doctrines and resolve conflicts of authority. The proposal also includes the creation of a Basque Judicial Council.

The chapter relating to Social Security is no less important. The proposal of the three-party coalition envisages managing the Social Security system from the Basque Country and includes the collection of Social Security contributions and the management of its own Social Security budgets.

The new Statute of Free Association includes the possibility of the Basque Country defending its own interests directly before all the institutions of the European Union. A new feature of the proposal is that the Basque Country be treated as a single electoral district in the European elections.

Lastly, the initiative of the Basque Government seeks to establish a bilateral system of guarantees to prevent unilateral modifications of the agreement. To achieve this, the creation of a bilateral Basque Country-State commission is proposed. It is also proposed to set up a specific court within the Supreme Court. Its members would be appointed both by the Court itself and the Basque Parliament, and the court would be responsible for resolving conflicts between the two parties.

Social Support

The majority of citizens support president’s proposal A survey carried out by the Basque Government, in which 1000 telephone interviews were made between October 10th and 15th 2002, in the three Basque provinces, highlights the fact that the inhabitants of the Basque Country are familiar with the new proposal for coexistence presented by Juan Jose Ibarretxe. The majority of Basques, to be precise 78%, are in agreement with the plan to hold a referendum to ratify Ibarretxe's initiative, although they believe the referendum must be held within a context of non-violence. Only 7% are not in favour of this idea. At the same time, 9 out of every 10 persons interviewed want the popular referendum to be held without anyone being excluded from taking part and under peaceful conditions, as proposed by the Lehendakari.

Likewise, 81% of those polled believe that the Spanish government must respect the decision of the citizens of the Basque Country about their political future.

However, there are a larger group of citizens who think Ibarretxe's proposal will lead us towards peace. Because of that reason, perhaps, 67% of them want the Lehendakari's initiative to succeed, compared to 13% who want it to fail.