The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has this Friday struck down the decision by the General Court of the European Union which prevented Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín from taking their seats in the European Parliament.
The day after the court found Oriol Junqueras should have enjoyed immunity, it has now decided the case of the other pro-independence Catalan politicians should be returned to the General Court for reconsideration. Yesterday's ruling would imply that Puigdemont and Comín also automatically became MEPs on the proclamation of the election results and enjoyed immunity from that moment.
El TJUE també estima el nostre recurs contra el Parlament Europeu i diu que el Tribunal General va errar quan el dia 1 de juliol ens va denegar les mesures cautelars per prendre possessió dels nostres escons. https://t.co/CQuvS9AaN0
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) December 20, 2019
In an order, the vice-president of the CJEU writes: "The composition of Parliament must faithfully and completely reflect the free expression of the choices made by the citizens of the European Union, through direct universal suffrage, as to the people by whom they wish to be represented in a given legislature."
Responding to an appeal presented by Puigdemont and Comín, he said the "President of the General Court committed an error of law" in one of his findings. Similarly, he should have "examined the condition of urgency or having weighed the balance of interests at stake" and the European Parliament should have been consulted.
Puigdemont and Comín were both listed as MEPs-elect in the results of May's election as published in Spain's Official State Gazette. However, as they were then unable to attend Spain's Congress to swear or pledge allegiance to the Spanish Constitution, and notarised letters they submitted to that effect were rejected, they were left off the list submitted by the Spanish Electoral Commission to Brussels. In response to an appeal from the two Catalan politicians, the General Court had found that latter list counted as the official proclamation of the results.