The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday (26 September) ruled in favour of the former European Parliament president to deny former Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín their MEP seats in Strasbourg in 2019.
The CJEU ruled that then-European Parliament President and Forza Italia (EPP) party leader Antonio Tajani acted correctly by adhering to the list of elected MEPs provided by Spanish authorities, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.
The two Catalan separatist leaders refused to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution, which led Madrid to omit them from the official list of elected MEPs.
“The president of the European Parliament [Tajani] could not depart from the list of elected MEPs, which the Spanish authorities officially notified him of,” reads the ruling.
Despite this initial exclusion, Puigdemont and Comín were granted their MEP seats by Tajani’s successor, David Sassoli, from January 2020 until the end of that European term in 2024.
European Parliament sources told EFE that this decision was based on a separate 2019 CJEU ruling involving the former leader of the left-wing separatist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, which granted them immunity.
Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular/EPP) spokeswoman in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, also welcomed the ruling on Thursday, calling it “a hard blow for the fugitives and good news for the rule of law” on X.
“The CJEU shelves Puigdemont and Comín’s appeal against the Parliament for not recognising them as MEPs in 2019. Neither immunity nor impunity for those who flee from justice and do not abide by the Constitution,” Montserrat added.
This is because in dismissing Puigdemont and Comín’s appeal, the CJEU ruled that their inability to obtain their seats was not a consequence of Tajani’s actions but rather their absence from the list of results provided by the Spanish authorities.
Lists are usually based on a “pre-existing situation” arising from decisions made at the national level. In the case of Puigdemont and Comín, “they did not appear on the official list of results notified by the Spanish authorities,” reads the judgment, which EFE saw.
The ruling reflects the same reasoning applied after the June 2023 European elections, when Comín’s MEP seat was similarly denied.
Furthermore, the court noted that Puigdemont and Comín could not seek an annulment of Tajani’s decision to withhold recognition of their parliamentary privileges and immunities, as this issue was “subject to a separate procedure.”
Worsening relations
Carles Puigdemont is currently in self-exile in Waterloo, near Brussels, awaiting the potential lifting of a national arrest warrant related to allegations of embezzlement and illicit related to the illegal pro-independence referendum organised on 1 October 2017 by the regional government (Generalitat).
The separatist leader is confident that he would soon be able to benefit from a controversial amnesty law that came into force last June promoted by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), which could allow him to return to Spain without facing prosecution.
The stability of Sánchez’s coalition government with the left-wing Sumar platform depends on the support of smaller separatist parties, including the seven deputies of Puigdemont’s right-wing separatist party Together for Catalonia (JxCat).
However, relations between Sánchez’s PSOE and Puigdemont’s JxCat have reached a low point after JxCat demanded further political concessions this week to support the 2025 national budget – the cornerstone of the central executive’s policy.
[Edited by Martina Monti]
Source: euractiv.com
