The Directorate-General for the Presidency of the European Parliament sent a communication to MEPs on Monday 6 January announcing the recognition of Catalan separatists Toni Comín, Oriol Junqueras and Carles Puigdemont as MEPs.
At the plenary sitting on 13 January 2020, Parliament will acknowledge their election. This communication follows the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in the Junqueras case on 19 December (see EUROPE 12367/14). The CJEU judgment confirmed that Comín, Junqueras and Puigdemont had acquired MEP status on the day the results of the European elections were officially declared on 13 June 2019.
Parliament’s administration will therefore proceed to accredit the Catalan Members of Parliament without further delay, following the same procedure as other Members of Parliament, we are told. The decision comes as no real surprise: Comín and Puigdemont had already obtained temporary accreditation last December (see EUROPE 12395/5).
They were elected in the European elections last May but were unable to take their seats in the European Parliament because they had not been sworn in on the Spanish Constitution (see EUROPE 12199/23). The European Parliament had therefore refused them accreditation through administrative channels.
The decision may create ripples in Spain: on Friday 3 January, the Spanish electoral commission decided that Mr Junqueras, who was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment (see EUROPE 12348/23) for taking part in the organisation of the self-determination referendum in October 2017, could not be granted MEP status (see EUROPE 11880/1). The Electoral Commission considers that the Spanish general electoral system prevents Mr Junqueras from being granted parliamentary status on the grounds that he is “sentenced to a definitive term of imprisonment” (see EUROPE 12396/6).
Asked by EUROPE about the electoral commission’s decision, the European Commission was very cautious. “We were clear last year about the judgment and the follow-up to the Junqueras case, which means that it is now up to the Spanish Supreme Court and the European Parliament to assess the follow-up to this preliminary ruling”, replied Christian Wigand, the European Commission’s spokesperson on Rule of law issues, in the press room.
The Electoral Commission is an administrative body. The Commission is apparently reserving its reaction until the Spanish Supreme Court delivers its judgment, probably by the end of the week, we are told.
A government forming with the assent of Catalan separatists
In Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the president of the central government, is expected to win a vote of confidence in the Spanish General Courts on Tuesday 7 January, after losing one by a narrow majority on Sunday 5 January. He is expected to obtain a relative majority with the support of the radical left-wing Podemos party and the abstention of the Catalan separatist party Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), which comprises thirteen elected members. In exchange for its abstention, the ERC hopes for negotiations with the Spanish central government to find a political solution to the Catalan question.
There is no shortage of subjects. The Spanish electoral commission, in addition to denying Junqueras status as MEP, also ordered the dismissal of Catalan President Quim Torra, requiring that he be stripped of his duties as a regional deputy on the grounds that he had been sentenced by the Spanish courts to 18 months’ ineligibility for “disobedience” on 19 December (Mr Torra had refused to remove separatist messages from the façade of the Catalan government seat during the April parliamentary elections). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)