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More than 40 Members of the European Parliament, belonging to the platform for dialogue between the European Union and Catalonia, have asked that the Sakharov Prize - for defence of human rights and freedom of thought - should be awarded to the Catalan political prisoners.

In an interview in Europe Diplomatic, the platform spokesman and MEP for the liberal ALDE group, Ivo Vaijgl, declared that in the face of the unacceptable situation that there are now political prisoners in the EU, as well as the scant respect shown by Spain towards elected parliamentary representatives and leaders of civil society, the platform has asked the Union to dedicate the Sakharov Prize to this freedom of conscience issue this year.

The platform has made this request in order to send a message of its discrepancy with Mariano Rajoy's Spanish government, with respect to the strategy it has adopted to solve the problem with Catalonia. The only way to solve this problem, says the platform, is dialogue, and dialogue alone.

This prize, named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, has been awarded since 1989 to people who contribute in an exceptional way to the fight for and defence of human rights all over the world.