Basque Nationalist Party leader Juan Jose Ibarretxe last week proposed a new governing arrangement involving ‘shared sovereignty’ for the Basque region of northern Spain. The plan submitted before the Basque regional parliament envisions a relationship wherein the Basque region would be fully self-governing, but ‘freely associated’ with Spain, as well as the European Union. The Basque regional government plans to hold a referendum on the issue of self-determination. The Spanish government in Madrid has condemned the decision, and several officials have said that the referendum would be illegal unless sanctioned by the Spanish parliament.
