Generalitat of Catalonia - International Presence

International Presence

As an autonomous community of Spain, Catalonia has no recognition as a sovereign state from any UN member or any de facto state. However, as Catalonia has progressively gained a greater degree of self-government in recent years, the Catalan Government has established nearly bilateral relationships with foreign bodies. For the most part, these relationships are with the governments of other powerful subnational entities such as Quebec or California . In addition, like most Spanish autonomous communities, Catalonia has permanent delegations before international organizations, such as the European Union .

Altogether, Catalonia has well over 40 representative offices worldwide . Most of these offices are located in major world cities like London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and others. Each office has specific duties assigned by their ministry or department agency. Generally, the functions of these are the representation of specific interests of the Government of Catalonia, trade and foreign investment, Catalan culture and language support, tourist promotion and international cooperation activities.

There are no specific Catalan political institutions in Northern Catalonia, the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales. However, since September 5, 2003, there has been a Casa de la Generalitat in Perpignan, which aims to promote the Catalan culture and facilitate exchanges between each side of the Franco–Spanish border.