Proposal to the Parliament

Today at Berria:

Proposal for the new statute now in parliament’s hands

In an extraordinary meeting yesterday the Basque Autonomous Community Government approved the bill for a new political statute. The Lehendakari (President), Juan Jose Ibarretxe, said Basque citizens would be deciding their future “by using their vote”

Edurne Begiristarin – GASTEIZ (Vitoria)

The bill to reform the Statute of Gernika is now in the hands of the Parliament of the BAC (Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa). The BAC Government approved the text yesterday in an extraordinary meeting held at Ajuria Enea, the BAC President’s official residence. The President, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, personally took the text of the new political statute of the BAC to the Parliament building and handed it to Juan Mari Atutxa, the Speaker of the Chamber, for it to be registered. The Parliamentary Presiding Committee will most likely classify it on November 4, and it is expected to take the form of a draft law. Following that, the parliamentary groups will have to debate it and the vote on it will be taken next year.

So the first step has been taken by Ibarretxe’s proposed pact for coexistence to replace the Statute of Gernika in force since 1979, and to develop a political pact “for the new generations.” That is how Ibarretxe referred to it yesterday after the meeting held with the BAC Government ministers. Ibarretxe said that the proposal approved by the EAJ, EA and the EB-IU parties was of immense importance and referred to yesterday as “a historic” day.

Ibarretxe appeared together with all the BAC Government ministers in the reception hall of Ajuria Enea and there he read out the official statement. “We, the BAC Government, want to move into a new era by assuming our institutional responsibility and by using the power that is enshrined in Article 46 of the Statute [of Gernika],” he said. He presented the bill as a “modern” proposal to seek solutions and to “live better” and one “which will establish the relationship of Euskadi (the BAC) with Spain, Europe and the world.”

Ibarretxe stressed the fact that the new Statute would not lead to any “split”, because its aim was to achieve a new sphere of coexistence with Spain.

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