The Diplomat
The Court of Justice of the European Union (TEU) has lifted the provisional measures that suspended the parliamentary immunity of former President of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and his former consellers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, all three with seats as MEPs for JxCAT, reports Europa Press.
In an order issued yesterday, the Luxembourg-based court rejects the interim measures that it accepted in June and which temporarily paralysed the suspension of immunity adopted by the European Parliament, pending the arguments of the European Parliament itself, before issuing a final order.
With this order, the EU Court dismisses the interim measures but will still rule on the merits of the case, without the decision on the interim measures prejudging the outcome of the main action.
Against the allegations of Puigdemont and the former consellers to suspend the lifting of immunities, the EU Court considers that the emergency measures are not justified, that the removal of immunity does not affect their movements as parliamentarians and that it is not accredited that they could be arrested imminently.
The European Court of Justice points out that the requirement of urgency does not exist, as the pro-independence politicians argued, and argues that only the “objective effects of the decisions” of the European Parliament should be taken into consideration, and not the interpretation of the decisions made by the pro-independence politicians, “which is more damaging to their rights”.
Nor does he perceive that the withdrawal of immunity affects their travel as MEPs, in particular their travel to Strasbourg in France. “They can travel to attend meetings of the Parliament and cannot validly invoke, in order to prove the existence of serious and irreparable damage, an alleged risk of being arrested, in particular in France”, the order states.
Finally, the EU Court considers that the former Catalan president and the former consellers have not demonstrated that they could be subject to “imminent detention”, as different factors must be present. Firstly, their surrender to the Spanish authorities and their possible arrest has not been demonstrated to a sufficient degree of possibility, given that the judicial process opened in Belgium to consider their surrender is suspended pending a ruling by the EU Court of Justice on a preliminary ruling on the extradition of Lluis Puig, which was rejected by the Belgian justice system last January.
“As long as the Court of Justice has not ruled on the Puig preliminary ruling, there is nothing to suggest that the Belgian judicial authorities can execute the European arrest warrants issued against the MEPs and hand them over to the Spanish authorities,” the order said.
In any case, the EU Court recalls that this decision is limited to temporary measures and that the MEPs can bring a new action if the alleged harm is sufficiently probable. The court mentions in particular the case of their arrest or any action aimed at handing them over to the Spanish authorities.
Carles Puigdemont downplayed the importance of the decision and on his Twitter account stated that it is because the Spanish justice system’s Euro-orders to request his extradition and try him in Spain are suspended.
