A European arrest warrant issued for five former Catalan ministers is stirring nationalist feelings around the continent but looks unlikely to change the EU’s settled view of the separatists’ standoff with the Spanish government. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man wrapped in the Catalan flag faces a riot police officer during a protest in Barcelona over the arrest of Carles Puigdemont. Photograph: Alejandro Garcia/EPAThe EU, already dealing with Brexit, the fallout from Italy’s elections and growing tensions with its eastern members, has little appetite for any formal intervention. Their stance is unchanged since Donald Tusk, the European council president, said last year: “It is not on our agenda. All of us have our opinions, but formally speaking there is no space for an EU intervention.”

Source: The Guardian March 29, 2018 03:56 UTC