María Jesús Cañizares
06-14-2019 00:00 h.
The Spanish Government has put the magnifying glass on the trip, the past month of February, of the minister for Digital Policies, Jordi Puigneró, to the Faroe Islands. The Govern reported about that travel with great detail, including photos and video of this high officer from Convergencia playiing in the snow.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has filed an appeal with the Fifth Section of the Administrative Contentious Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) against the agreement signed between the Department of Digital Policies and Public Administration of the Generalitat and the Ministry of Finance of the Faroe Islands. It is a memorandum that the Generalitat publicized within the framework of its international relations. The Justice must determine, therefore, if this agreement invades state competitions.
Memorandum signed by the ‘minister of digital policies’ of Catalonia and the Government of the Faroe Islands
On February 4, minister Puigneró met with the Prime Minister of the Government of the aforementioned autonomous archipelago, Aksel V. Johanessen. These islands, which appear on the list of tax havens prepared by the European Union, aspire to independence from Denmark. Hence the complicities established by the Catalan Executive.
“Bilateral collaboration”
During the meeting, both governments signed an agreement of “bilateral collaboration” – as stated in the text of the memorandum – between the respective administrations in order to define a common program and collaborate in the development of public policies in the fields of governance and the digital economy.
In this document, in its English version, Puigneró signs as a ministry for digital policy and public administration, together with the Minister of Finance of the Faeroe Islands, Kristina Háfoss. The objective, both parties subscribe, is to share “knowledge and experiences in relation to the development of research and innovation of advanced digital technologies, including the internet of things, 5G, blockchain, computer vision, smart drones, the massive data and the artificial intelligence “.
The institutional trip took place in an excursion profusely publicized by the Govern itself in the social networks, where Puigneró plays in the snow and poses with the rest of the delegation. In fact, if the official meeting took place on February 4, the representatives of the Generalitat moved to the islands on January 31. The cost of the trip amounted to 10,395 euros, according to the transparency portal of the regional government,
Months before, specifically in October 2018, former President Carles Puigdemont made a trip to this archipelago to give a lecture on the right to self-determination. He was invited by the Faroese MP in the Parliament of Denmark Magni Arge.
There are different degrees of fiscal opacity in these tax havens and the Faroe Islands appear in a “gray” list of the EU. These are territories where capital evasion is favored, but which have a commitment to the eurozone to get out of that opacity.
A long and deep talk at Tórshavn about the pro-independence processes to Catalonia and the Faroe Islands between President Puigdemont @ KRLS and the vice first minister, Høgni Hoydal, and the minister of foreign affairs, Poul Michelsen # RepúblicaCatalana
The visit of Puigdemont took place in the heat of a controversy about a study, seized by the Civil Guard in the frame of the investigations of procés, according to which the Generalitat contemplated the possibility that Catalonia offered fiscal advantages and opacity for the capitals like Switzerland and Andorra , which have acted as tax havens until recently –Andorra raised the secret in January 2018–, if finally they were not allowed to remain in the EU after becoming independent.
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