LISD co-sponsored a lunch talk, "Europe and the United States in Today's World: A European Perspective," by The Honorable Jordi Pujol, former President of Catalonia, at 12:00 p.m. on March 4, 2010. The event was held at Prospect House on the Princeton University campus. It was co-sponsored with the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society and the European Union Program.

Pujol is the former president of Catalonia (1980-2003) and one of the leading public figures in Catalan and Spanish politics. Actively involved in the resistance movement against General Franco’s regime since he was young, Pujol was arrested and imprisoned for two years (1960-62). After his release from prison, Pujol became actively involved in numerous cultural, economic and social initiatives, including the founding of a bank. After the transition to democracy, he organized a broad political coalition, Convergència i Unió, to lobby for a self-governed Catalonia within Spain. Elected to the Spanish Parliament in 1977, he resigned to become the first elected President of a restored Catalan autonomous government. In 1992 he became the President of the Assembly of European Regions. Pujol’s party provided crucial parliamentary support to both Socialist and Conservative Spanish governments from 1993 to 2000.