Weblog Gerber van der Graaf

Hieronder vind je de weblog van Gerber van der Graaf, ingenieur. Hij woont al een jaar of 22 in Catalonië en houdt sinds juni 2017 een weblog bij met beschouwingen over de politieke situatie - met name de vervolging van de Catalaanse politici. Met zijn goedvinden is dit artikel geïntegreerd in deze website, maar kan uiteraard ook ‘los’ worden bekeken.

Incongruous CJEU ruling

30 september 2024

(900 words)

In the 2019 European elections, the ‘Lliures per Europa’ (Free for Europe) party of the Spanish-deposed Catalan President Puigdemont and his health minister, Toni Comín, obtained 1,018,435 votes. (After Brexit, Puigdemont his minister of education, Clara Ponsatí, joined them as she lived in Scotland.) Yet they were denied access to the European Parliament by the then speaker of parliament, Antonio Tajani. The reason? The Spanish Electoral Commission, JEC, had not included them on the list of elected MEPs because they refused to swear allegiance to the Spanish constitution. As a supporter of Catalan independence, it is inconsistent to swear allegiance to the constitution of a country from which you want to secede. In addition, there was an arrest warrant against them in Spain. (That is still the case today. Puigdemont’s escape from Barcelona last September 8, when he wanted to attend the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament as an elected representative, showed once again that Spain has little respect for the democratically elected deputies.) It was therefore made impossible for Puigdemont and Comín to freely swear allegiance to the Spanish Constitution even if they had wanted to do so.

The now new President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, changed his mind after the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled in December 2019 that Oriol Junqueras enjoyed legal immunity from the moment he was elected a MEP. The announcement of the election results, which also included the names of Puigdemont and Comín, took place on June 13, 2019. At the time of the CJEU ruling, Junqueras was in pre-trial detention awaiting trial, along with other ministers and the president of the Catalan Parliament. Ultimately, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that Junqueras could not be released despite his legal immunity as an elected MEP.

After Puigdemont and Comín were denied access to the European Parliament, they initiated proceedings against the Parliament President before the European General Court (ECC), the first authority where a complaint of an administrative nature must be dealt with. This Court ruled in June 2022 that Tajani had acted correctly by complying with the list of MEPs that the JEC had provided to him. Puigdemont and Comín then appealed to the highest authority, the CJEU.

Last week, now after the relevant parliamentary term of government had expired, the final ruling finally followed. But prior to this ruling, the CJEU’s chief lawyer, Maciej Aleksander Szpunar, had stated that EU member states cannot impose arbitrary requirements on elected MEPs to become members of the European Parliament. Typically, the lead counsel’s opinion reflects the impending ruling of the CJEU. This time, however, that was not the case. Something what rarely happens.

The CJEU ruled last September 26 that the speaker of parliament, in this case Tatiani, cannot judge who has been elected to parliament other than the list sent to him by the electoral commissions of the EU member states. In its ruling, the CJEU invites Puigdemont and Comín to submit preliminary legal questions to the general chamber of the same CJEU through the Spanish justice system. (Oh cynicism, the same authorities that excluded them from participation in the European Parliament).

As if Puigdemont and Comín had not already submitted these questions to the CJEU two years ago! It is clear that the second chamber of the CJEU, which is handling the case, refuses to rule on the core of the problem and goes against the interests of EU member state Spain. In doing so, she delays the legal proceedings by at least another five years.

The ruling sets a dangerous precedent for the EU as a whole. Every EU member state now has the opportunity to ban national political dissidents from the European parliament. Poland can ban non-Catholics, Hungary can ban homosexuals, Bulgaria because a representative speaks Turkish, to name just a few examples.

Moreover, the judgment contradicts the judgment of the CJEU on the Junqueras case. The CJEU now makes a distinction between obtaining parliamentary immunity and obtaining the credentials of the EU member state to become a Member of the European Parliament. This leads to an untenable situation in which an elected MEP cannot defend himself. Comín stood for re-election at the last European elections last June. But for the same reason as at the time, especially now after this ruling, he is not given access to parliament by the current parliament chairwoman, Metsola. But according to the CJEU’s ruling on the Junqueras case, Comín does enjoy parliamentary immunity. He cannot therefore defend himself in the European Parliament when the Spanish justice asks this parliament to revoke his legal immunity in order to prosecute him.

Given the slow legal procedures, Comín will not be able to participate in parliament as a European delegate this term due to the CJEU ruling. This means that he and his 442,297 voters are excluded from the democratic decision-making of the European Union.

No one tells me that Spain did not exert its influence in this ruling. It will not be the first time that EU officials of Spanish origin have committed themselves to Spanish nationalist interests. In recent years, Puigdemont has warned, inside and outside the European Parliament, of the negative consequences if the Union does not respond to the democratic will of its citizens. It looks like he was right about that.

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