Parliament Basque ban

By Martin Banks

Date: 01/12/05

A member of the outlawed Basque nationalist party Batasuna was prevented from attending a conference at the European Parliament yesterday (30 November).

Pernando Barrena, a member of the party's national executive, was among four speakers invited by the Greens/ European Free Alliance group to address a meeting discussing ways of finding peace in the Basque region.

But the Parliamentary authorities refused to issue the 40-year-old with a visitor's badge because they said he was a member of an illegal organisation.

A Parliament source said: "The request was rejected because of his membership of ETA and also on the grounds that he was considered a potential security risk."

Gérard Onesta, a French Green MEP, who chaired the conference, attacked Parliament's decision. He said the decision might have been taken to spare possible embarrassment to the former Spanish prime minister José Mar’a Aznar who was at the Parliament yesterday for a brief meeting with centre-right Spanish MEPs.

Article reports that a member of the outlawed Basque nationalist party Batasuna was prevented from attending a conference at the European Parliament on 30 November 2005. Pernando Barrena, a member of the party's national executive, was among four speakers invited by the Greens/ European Free Alliance group to address a meeting discussing ways of finding peace in the Basque region.