Former leader of Catalonia, self-exiled Carles Puigdemont has every right to be elected the new regional leader and has not ruled out taking part in the investiture in Barcelona, Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent said in Brussels on Wednesday.

Puigdemont fled to Brussels shortly after making an illegal declaration of independence for the wealthy northeastern region at the end of October and faces possible arrest on charges of sedition and rebellion if he returns to Spain.

Catalonia's ousted president had originally been due to meet with Torrent and four other members of his sacked government at Catalonia's trade mission in Brussels. But they were forced to move the meeting to another nearby location after Spain's central government ordered Catalonia's representative in Brussels not to allow it to take place at the mission, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

The gathering comes just two days after Torrent - who is also pro-independence - proposed Puigdemont as president of Catalonia following a snap election in December in which separatist parties again won an absolute majority.

But Puigdemont, who faces arrest over his independence push if he returns to Spain, has to figure out how he can be officially voted in at a parliamentary session due by the end of the month.

He has said he could be sworn in from Brussels, a plan Spain's central government opposes. He has also said he would rather return to Spain but the central government vowed to order his arrest.

Catalonia's official representative in Brussels has been under the authority of Madrid since Spain's central government placed the region under its direct control following the independence bid.

"We reserve the right to study the legal implications of this situation", a spokesman for Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia party, Joan Maria Pique, said in Brussels Wednesday.