On Friday 30 July, the Vice-President of the General Court of the European Union rejected the request to suspend lifting parliamentary immunity of Mr Carles Puigdemont, Mr Antoni Comín and Mrs Clara Ponsatí.
These Catalan separatists MEPs had lodged an appeal on 19 May 2021 to annul the waiver of their immunity by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12674/2) and filed an application for interim measures on 26 May to suspend the execution of Parliament’s decisions.
According to the MEPs, these decisions do not preclude their remand in custody following their eventual handover to the Spanish authorities and this would cause them serious and irreparable harm and would infringe their right to exercise their functions as MEPs.
On 2 June, by order, the Vice-President of the General Court had ordered a stay of execution of Parliament’s decisions until the adoption of his decision, which puts an end to the summary proceedings (see EUROPE 12732/26).
In his order of 30 July, the Vice-President recalls that a stay of execution may be granted if the party requesting it establishes that its granting is prima facie justified in fact and in law and that it is urgent, in the sense that it is necessary, in order to avoid serious and irreparable harm, that it be enacted and take effect before the decision in the main case.
According to him, in analysing the condition of urgency, the MEPs have retained the interpretation of Parliament’s decisions that most affects their rights, whereas only the objective effects of the decisions, determined in the light of their content, should be taken into account.
Furthermore, the Vice-President recalled that the immunity covering the travel of Members to and from Parliament’s place of meeting remains legally intact. The latter cannot therefore, in order to establish the existence of serious and irreparable harm, claim a risk of being arrested during the journeys.
The Vice-President also considers that the MEPs have not demonstrated that they could be subject to imminent arrest.
In addition, the criminal proceedings in the case of Puig Gordi and others (C-158/21) was suspended by a request for a preliminary ruling, the execution of European arrest warrants was also suspended. MEPs have not provided any evidence to challenge this. According to the Vice-President of the General Court, until the Court has given a judgement on this preliminary ruling, there is no reason to believe that the authorities of a Member State could execute the European arrest warrants issued against the MEPs and hand them over to the Spanish authorities.
He therefore concludes that the MEPs have failed to demonstrate that the requirement of urgency is met, since, as it stands, the serious and irreparable harm claimed cannot be characterised as certain or established harm with a sufficient degree of probability.
Despite this rejection, MEPs retain the possibility of submitting a new application if, in the future, the alleged harm appears sufficiently likely. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)