Catalan independence fighters Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín were authorised by the European Parliament on Friday 20 December to be accredited to sit as MEPs.
"Today is a historic day. The Catalan conflict has strengthened European democracy: the citizens' decision has prevailed over the dominant voracity of some states", said Carles Puigdemont, former independence president of the Generalitat de Catalunya and now a happy MEP, in the European Parliament, alongside Belgian MEP Assita Kanko (ECR).
They were given a temporary MEP badge for the day and were informed by the European Parliament's services of the terms of their mandate and their financial rights. The administrative procedure will be completed on 6 January, once the report on the way forward has been delivered by the European Parliament's legal services.
The two politicians, prosecuted by the Spanish courts following the referendum on self-determination in October 2017 (see EUROPE 11884/18), have been in exile in Belgium for 2 years.
They had been elected MEPs following the European elections last May, but had been unable to sit in the European Parliament until then because they had not been sworn in on the Spanish constitution (see EUROPE 12199/23). The European Parliament, through administrative channels, had therefore refused them accreditation.
The two politicians then asked the General Court of the EU to suspend the execution of the European Parliament's decisions, which the Court refused to do last July (see EUROPE 12287/16). However, on the morning of Friday 20 December, the Court of Justice of the EU annulled the order of the General Court by sending the examination of the request of the two Catalan officials back to the General Court.
The Court's ruling follows another major judgment, handed down the day before, in which it recognised the parliamentary immunity of the Catalan pro-independence activist Oriol Junqueras, currently imprisoned in Spain (see EUROPE 12394/1), at the same time making the Catalan crisis a European case. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)