The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rejected, on Wednesday July 5, the appeals of three Catalan separatist MEPs, including Carles Puigdemont, who challenged the lifting of their immunity decided in 2021 by the European Parliament. Mr. Puigdement announced on Twitter his intention to appeal of this decision.
The decision also concerns Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin, relatives of Mr. Puigdemont. All three have been in the crosshairs of Spanish justice since Catalonia’s failed secession attempt in 2017. justice in their country.
After summary proceedings related to the appeal brought in the summer of 2021 against these decisions, the court established in Luxembourg ruled this time on the merits. The court notably rejected the argument of the alleged violation by the European Parliament of the principle of impartiality, which was brandished by the applicants.
“It’s not over. On the contrary, it continues”
“The court rejects all of the grounds put forward by the three deputies, in particular their arguments that Parliament erred in concluding that the legal proceedings in question were not initiated with the intention of harming the activity of the deputies. », he said in a statement. The court also considers that, in deciding on the requests for waiver of immunity presented by Madrid, the European Parliament had not “not to examine the legality of Spanish judicial acts”. “This question falls within the sole competence of the national authorities”the statement said.
“It’s not over. On the contrary, it continues”Mr. Puigdemont said on Twitter. “We are going to appeal (…) as quickly as possible and as ambitiously as possible” hoping to get “a favorable outcome”he also told the press in Brussels. “We have already managed to reverse hostile situations”, he added, confident. In parallel with this appeal, his defense will request interim measures so that he can continue to benefit from his immunity until the decision of the CJEU.
Three weeks before the legislative elections, the Spanish government welcomed the decision of the EU court, which opens the door to the issuance by the Spanish courts of a new European arrest warrant against Mr. Puigdemont and the two other separatists. “The government is very pleased because this decision undoubtedly supports [la position de] Spanish justice and the European Parliament”, said the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop. The Spanish Supreme Court has been calling for his extradition since 2017, but Belgian justice has never given the final green light, in particular due to problems of equivalence of the charges in the respective national laws.
Mr. Puigdemont is being prosecuted in Spain for embezzlement of public funds and disobedience. Spanish justice had to abandon in January its prosecution for sedition, which could have cost him a much heavier sentence if he is ever tried, after a reform of the penal code abolishing this offense. This controversial reform of the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez was intended to give pledges to the Catalan separatist movement, part of which supports the executive.
The independence government of Mr. Puigdemont had tried in October 2017 to secede from Spain by organizing a referendum of self-determination, prohibited by justice, before the local Parliament unilaterally declared the independence of the region. Madrid then suspended the region’s autonomy while the separatist leaders were imprisoned or fled abroad. Nine of them were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison in 2019 before being pardoned by the government in 2021. Mme Ponsati and Messrs. Puigdemont and Comin were among the leaders who fled their country; all three are currently established in Belgium.