The Court of Justice of the European Union has annulled this Thursday the decision of the European Parliament to suspend the immunity of the then deputies Carles Puigdemont, Tonio Comín and Clara Ponsatí in 2021. The ruling considers that the appointment of the rapporteur who wrote the report for Parliament, a far-right deputy who had shared an event with Vox in favor of the arrest and prosecution of the independentists, was “contrary to the requirement of impartiality”, so it should have been considered null.
The ruling has no direct effects on any of the cases opened by the independence supporters, beyond the defense of their case before the European Court of Human Rights. However, both Puigdemont and Ponsatí have ceased to be members of the chamber, while Comín continues to maintain a battle to be recognized as a deputy.
The European Justice has ruled specifically on the appeal filed by Puigdemont, Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí against the decision of the European Parliament to withdraw their parliamentary protection in 2021, after the Supreme Court requested the request to be able to try them in Spain for the ‘procés’ case.
However, the lawyer general of the European Union recommended to the court that the case be dismissed at least for Puigdemont and Ponsatí, because having not presented themselves to the 2024 European elections “they no longer have interest in bringing the action.”
On the other hand, the lawyer, Maciej Szpunar, did consider that the case “continues to be of interest” for Comín, who appeared in those elections and obtained the necessary votes to revalidate his seat, although today he does not occupy it because he did not go to Madrid to abide by the Constitution, due to the risk of being arrested.
However, the lawyer considered that the CJEU should dismiss the appeal. Firstly, he pointed out that the European Parliament did not violate the rights of Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí to have their case treated impartially and equitably when it decided to unify the three requests into a single speaker, belonging to the same political group as Ciudadanos and VOX, a party that has appeared in the ‘1-O’ case. Nor did it violate them, according to Szpunar, considering that the request requested by the Supreme Court did not put the independence of the European Parliament at risk.
The CJEU is also expected to issue its ruling this year on the amnesty law, a ruling for which there is still no date and which will determine Puigdemont’s possible return to Spain. Although the return of the Junts leader will depend, to a large extent, on the sentence that the Constitutional Court must issue regarding whether the Supreme Court should have granted amnesty for the crime of embezzlement.
Source: www.eldiario.es
