Brussels, 21/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference, on Wednesday in Brussels, the President and Vice-President of the European Parliament Socialist group, Enrique Baron and Martin Schulz, reproached the European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine for her actions in the case of the request for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of the Forza Italia MEPs Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell'Utri, presented by the Spanish Tribunal supremo last summer and still pending (see in particular EUROPE of 14 March, p.6). The two MEPs invited Mrs Fontaine to hand without delay this request to the competent bodies in the Parliament, and notably its legal service and its Legal Committee.
This is not a case of the "Socialist group against the President", but of the independence of the European Parliament, its dignity and the respect for its regulations, asserts the former EP President Enrique Baron, who recalled that Article 3 of the regulation stipulates that the MEPs "have the right to consult any dossier in the Parliament's possession", and its Article 6 that any request for the lifting of parliamentary immunity is transmitted in plenary session and passed on to the competent committee, which "examines the requests without delay". The Parliament cannot take part in an operation of obstructing justice, stated Mr Baron, when recalling that, in this case, time counts, since it is a issue of significant tax fraud and that the periods of time prescribed for this kind of crime are relatively short.
Mrs Fontaine had explained this delay, with her doubts as to the admissibility of a request coming directly from the Tribunal supremo; with regards to Spain, the requests to lift the immunity of MEPs have always been passed on by the Permanent Representative for the EU or by the Justice Minister, she said. Mrs Fontaine, while she may have doubts, has done nothing for eight months, stated Mr Schulz before the press. The German Social Democrat recalled that he had asked Mrs Fontaine whether it was the first time that the Tribunal supremo contacted the Parliament directly in such a case, and that Mrs Fontaine had answered yes. In the meantime, Mrs Fontaine wrote two letter to Mr Schulz, to corroborate this thesis - on 13 March, a letter in which she refers to the request to lift the immunity of the Spanish MEP Jose Maria Ruiz-Mateos; - on 19 March, another letter outlining a series of requests to lift parliamentary immunity, including that (over which there has not yet been any announcement in plenary) of the leader of the Lega Nord, Umberto Bossi.
However, asserts Mr Schulz, Mrs Fontaine said in her first letter: - a first request concerning Mr Ruiz-Mateos, in 1990, had been passed on to the EP by the Spanish Permanent Representative. This is true, said Mr Schulz, but Carlos Westendorp, Permanent Representative at the time, had simply spoken of "factor", and the request was sent to the EP by the Tribunal supremo (Mr Baron added for his part that it is necessary to distinguish between competent authority to make such a request, and the path for passing on); - that a second request dating back to 1991 had been passed on by the Spanish Minister for Justice. Yes noted Mr Schulz, but the Minister only intervened because this request came from a simple judge, and not from the Tribunal supremo; - that a third request, in 1992, was also passed on by the Ministry of Justice. Which Mrs Fontaine says is "false", asserts Mrs Schulz, when showing a document (I checked it three times, he said) where it can be seen that on 3 March 1992 the President of the Tribunal supremo had written directly to the then EP President Egon Klepsch, who had then informed the plenary, as required by the regulation, on 7 April. A journalist said during the press conference that he had another document according to which, on the contrary, this request did come from the Ministry of Justice, and Mr Schulz thus explained the contradiction: this last document, from Mr Defraigne, rapporteur on the request to lift the immunity of Ruiz-Mateos, contained an error, committed in fact by President Klepsch, who had, in handing the case to the Legal Committee, indicated that the request came from the "Supreme Court of the Ministry of Justice".
As for the Bossi case, Mr Schulz indicated that the request to lift the immunity passed on in March 1999 came from the Pretura circondariale in Venice, which had raised doubts for the EP President at the time, Jose Maria Gil-Robles, who had entrusted the President of the Legal Committee, Ben Fayot, with casting light on the issue of admissibility. "Doubts" have always arisen over the issue of lifting parliamentary immunity, so why, in the case of Mr Berlusconi, Mrs Fontaine did not follow the normal path by addressing the Parliament's body?, asked Mr Schulz. According to him, "it is scandalous" that Mrs Fontaine, in passing on the request from the Tribunal supremo, to the Spanish government, assumed a right that did not belong to her. It is not the President who assesses the requests for lifting immunity, but the Legal Committee, he asserted.