'We are and will be European people'

We are Catalan people was first heard at Barcelona's Teatro Principal on January 19, 1907, at the premiere of La Santa Espina by Àngel Guimerà and Enric Morera. Today, May 9, 2025, Europe Day, we can imagine a new version of our most famous sardana: som i serem gent Europea .

Because, whether you like it or not, we are and will be Europeans because we are and will be Catalans. That is our place in the world: a human community of 450 million citizens: the European Union. As Jean Monnet, pioneer of the dream of a united Europe, said: "We do not unite states, we unite people."

Europe must deepen its political union; the way forward is federalism.

This union of peoples that is Europe has become the most ambitious and successful political, economic, social, and cultural project in contemporary history. Let us be proud that Catalonia has contributed to its success and is an active part of it. In the current uncertainty of the geopolitical landscape, Europe is the only model that unites the generation of prosperity, democracy, and the welfare state.

The European project was born with the commitment to avoid the barbarism that ravaged the continent after the two world wars of the 20th century. In other words, a project founded on peace and humanistic values. Today, this model is under threat. Europe finds itself between two threats: the commercial threat from Trump's US and the military threat from Putin's Russia.

Let us not allow ourselves to be threatened or led by defeatism. Europe holds all the economic, industrial, scientific, and social potential necessary to protect and improve the quality of life of its citizens.

That's why Catalonia has taken a step forward to assume new responsibilities in keeping with its deeply European spirit and potential. With one goal: to strengthen the European model of shared prosperity.

Catalonia is back, stated António Costa, President of the European Council, during our meeting last Tuesday at the Palau de la Generalitat. Indeed, Catalonia has returned to Europe to propose solutions and actively participate in decision-making bodies. I expressed this at the Committee of the Regions and conveyed it to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. We want our voice to be heard in Catalan. At the same time, Catalonia once again chairs the "Four Engines of Europe" entity, a leadership that we want to transform into new opportunities for businesses, entrepreneurs, and students.

The response to the immense challenges we face—access to housing, the fight against climate change, artificial intelligence, and the need to guarantee our security—must be articulated from a European perspective to be effective.

Therefore, Europe must be brave and deepen its political union with the same ambition it has achieved in economic and monetary union. There is only one path: European federalism. Because federalism is the articulation of the European Union's very motto: united in diversity. The major challenges I mentioned earlier require an unprecedented effort in co-governance and cross-border collaboration, as established in the Letta and Draghi reports.

Today it is up to us to live up to the thousands and thousands of Europeans who defended the dream of a democratic and free Europe in the darkest times of history. Europe is today our shared cause and the hope of millions of people. I call on all citizens, especially young people, to defend Europe above ideologies and beliefs. Because it is precisely Europe that guarantees our diversity of ideas, beliefs, and identities.

We will have achieved the true European dream the day we say, with the same sense of pride and belonging, "I am European," as we say today, "I am Catalan."