The Diplomat
The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee mission to Spain to gather information on the 379 unsolved ETA crimes, which had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will finally take place in November.
This was decided in mid-July at a meeting of the spokespersons of Parliament’s political groups. However, the exact dates of the visit have yet to be finalised, reports Europa Press.
The fact-finding mission to the Basque Country was approved in January 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the visit to be postponed until the epidemiological situation allowed it. The aim is for the delegation to be able to meet victims and police and judicial authorities in Spain.
The matter was brought to the committee by a complaint from the representative of the association Dignity and Justice Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Arias, who had already raised the situation with MEPs in 2017 and 2018 and pointed out that it was advisable for MEPs to visit Spain.
The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee held a new hearing on this issue in November 2020, in which MEPs unanimously decided not to close the case and to keep it open.
It was at that time that the chair of the committee, EPP member Dolors Montserrat, said that the fact-finding mission would take place “as soon as COVID allows it”.
