Pressure from Spanish members within the Academia Europaea has caused the scholarly body to rectify and withdraw the support it gave to the economist Andreu Mas-Colell over the multi-million euro demand he faces from Spain's Court of Accounts for Catalan government spending on the independence process. The president of the academy, David Coates, has apologized to members of the European organization for sending an email asking for signatures for a letter of support to Mas-Colell, former Catalan minister of economy and knowledge.
One of the Spanish members who spoke out to criticize the position of the academy is José Domínguez Abascal, engineering professor and, until last year, undersecretary for energy in the Spanish government. In a letter, Domínguez expressed his "strongest condemnation of the use of the Academia Europaea to question the rule of law of a democratic country that is a member of the European Union." He added: "There should be no doubting the audit of the accounts for which [Mas-Colell] was responsible in the Catalan government. This is the reason that he is under investigation."
Coates: "An apology"
Following the pressures, David Coates rectified and said he was "on reflection, hasty" to have taken a position on this issue. The president of the European organization of science and letters went even further and noted that "the 'new' information makes it clear that the issue is only for the relevant national authorities to pursue" and is "not of academic concern". Thus, he now says that the entity is "taking no view." Nevertheless, he adds that professor Mas-Colell's "outstanding and distinguished scholarly record is not in question".
Other shows of support
In recent weeks, Andreu Mas-Colell has received support from other academic organizations with recognized prestige around the world because of the threat to his personal livelihood represented by the apparent political campaigning of the Court of Accounts, which is not a full court of law, and has been heavily criticised for politicised rulings and nepotism. Among the economics community, Dani Rodrik (economist at Harvard Kennedy School), Kaushik Basu (chief economist at the World Bank and professor at Cornell University) and the Georgetown Center for Economic Research are just a few of the personalities and organizations that have closed ranks with the former Catalan minister from the American continent.
At the same time, a group of 33 Nobel laureates in economics and other prominent economists wrote a letter to defend Mas-Colell and show their "deep concern" for his situation. Andreu Mas-Colell's son, Alex Mas, explained that the persecution by the Court of Accounts could cause his parents to "lose their house, his pension and his bank account". He noted that his father had retired from politics in January 2016, almost two years before the independence referendum.
This Tuesday it became known that the Court of Accounts has set a sum of 2.8 million euros as the maximum liability which Andreu Mas-Colell may face within two weeks. Other former members of the Catalan government may also be required to pay comparable sums: Francesc Homs (2.9 million), Artur Mas (2.8 million), Raül Romeva (2.1 million), and Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras (both 2.0 million) are some examples. The responsibility for the amount is joint and several, and if the entire group of 35 defendants fails to hand over a total amount of 5.4 million euros within a fortnight, individual defendants face possible confiscation and embargos of assets up to the amount of the individual liability defined for each one.
Main image: Andreu Mas-Colell, at Pompeu Fabra University. Sergi Alcazar.