One of the founding objectives of Naziogintza Taldea was to establish relations with other stateless nations in Europe in order to foster cooperation and mutual knowledge and to initiate new synergies in defence of our national rights.
For this purpose, immediately after its creation our organisation joined the international association ICEC. The ICEC (International Commission of European Citizens) (https://icec.ngo/) is made up of representatives of stateless nations in Europe (Scotland, Catalonia, Euskal Herria, Flanders, Wales, South Tyrol and Veneto) and acts for our national rights, especially for self-determination and linguistic rights. In previous years the ICEC, based in Brussels, organised several symposiums in the European Parliament in collaboration with some political parties of that Parliament.
European independence movements such as the Scottish Independence Convention in Scotland, Yes Cymru in Wales, the Vlaamse Volksbeweging in Flanders (VVB) or CIEMEN in Catalonia are represented in the ICEC. Naziogintza Taldea is the institution that represents the Basque Country in the ICEC.
On 5 July last, in Cardiff (Wales), the representatives of the ICEC signed the Cardiff Declaration, a document that proposes to strengthen cooperation between European civic independence movements. Although in the Basque Country this signature has gone rather unnoticed, several media from other nations (Scotland, Wales, South Tyrol…) immediately picked up the news of the Cardiff Declaration (*). These media stressed that the signed declaration proposed that citizen participation, international cooperation and European democratic values should be at the basis of the independence processes.
The signed declaration highlights the need to seek spaces for cooperation between the nations that want to be masters of their future, to learn from the experiences of others and to take advantage of possible opportunities in the international field in order to take significant steps on the way to independence.
The Welsh independence organisation YES CYMRU hosted the symposium in Cardiff. The meeting gave us the opportunity to learn about the political situation of other nations and, in particular, the political and linguistic challenges in Wales. Let’s remember that Wales has the most similar linguistic situation to the Basque Country, and that there are many similarities between our two nations.
To conclude, from Naziogintza Taldea, as members of the ICEC, we call on the groups and institutions of the Basque Country that are working for self-determination to work together, always bearing in mind that self-determination is not an objective for us, but only a political instrument. Our goal is independence, because we firmly believe that the Basque Republic is the political structure that our nation needs to face the challenges of the 21st century.
(*) News in the international media:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25292209.scotland-among-7-countries-sign-independence-declaration/
https://schuetzen.com/2025/07/09/konferenz-in-wales-fuer-mehr-unabhaengigkeit-schuetzen-mit-dabei/
https://nation.cymru/news/international-declaration-signed-at-landmark-icec-conference/
