PNV will present proposal for new Basque status in 2013 - Urkullu

Inigo Urkullu, the leader of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), will present Spain´s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy a proposal to negotiate a new status for the Basque Country in 2013, Urkullu himself announced on Tuesday.

During an interview in EITB-1 program Azpimarra, Iñigo Urkullu, who is likely to be sworn in as the region´s next lehendakari (president), also said his main priority will be to reactivate economy and to look for foreign markets for the Basque Country as Spain is an exhausted market.

Urkullu will ask every political party to appoint two experts that will form a group to detail the legal guarantees that the new status should have. He also said that once an agreement has been reached in the Basque parliaments, he wants the citizens to corroborate that agreement.

The PNV was the winner of last month's regional elections, with EH Bildu, a coalition of pro-independence groups, coming in second.