10/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to El Pais, the Spanish State Council was to issue its opinion on Thursday on the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Silvio Berlusconi MEP (Forza Italia). The paper stressed that the State Council had acted very quickly, as it had only received the formal request on 9 April, following further delays in the Spanish Foreign Ministry. The opinion states that it is the Ministry of Justice which is competent for the forwarding of requests for the lifting of immunity in the European Parliament, but also recalls that this competence beholds the Supreme Court alone for Spanish deputies and senators since the law of 1912.