THE first meeting in seven years of a joint Catalan and Spanish government commission ended in acrimony last night when the head of Spain’s delegation dismissed the idea of an independence referendum and said Catalonia’s right to self-determination “does not exist”.

Meritxell Batet, Spain’s minister for territorial policy, rejected the creation of a bilateral working group on the issue.

But Catalan delegation leader and Foreign Affairs Minister, Ernest Maragall, retorted: “We’ll insist, and we’ll win even though they keep telling us that this is not a matter for discussion.”

Batet said the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez had “a project for Catalonia; a project for Spain with Catalonia being a part of it”, although Maragall said no such project for Catalonia was presented to the meeting.

Elsa Artadi, the Catalan government spokesperson, described the outcome as disappointing.

She said: “They told us that justice is independent… but did not want to talk about self-determination because they said this cannot emerge from the bilateral commission.”

Speaking to Catalan Radio, Artadi said an independence referendum remained their goal, but she refused to rule out another unilateral declaration of independence, as happened after the indyref in October and which triggered Spain’s imposition of direct rule in the region.