This Monday at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, 59 MEPs elected by voters in the Spanish state on June 9th either swore or pledged on the Spanish Constitution. However, the Central Electoral Commission (JEC) has for now omitted MEP Toni Comín, elected representative of Together for Catalonia (Junts), from its list, because "he has not fulfilled the requirement of an oath or promise of compliance with the Constitution", as stated in the agreement approved after the ceremony by the JEC. "By virtue of this, it is appropriate to declare the seat" won by Toni Comín temporarily vacant, "as well as the suspension of his prerogatives", asserts the electoral body, "until the act of compliance with the Constitution takes place". The former Catalan minister is in exile and has not been able to go to Madrid to swear on the Constitution on the very same day, in fact, as the Supreme Court has decided not to grant an amnesty for the crime of misuse of public funds and to maintain the arrest warrants for him, Carles Puigdemont and Lluís Puig.
However, the Spanish adminstrative body's decision contravenes the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which ruled in December 2019 that Oriol Junqueras had acquired the immunity from prosecution of an MEP from the moment that the JEC had proclaimed the official election results. Therefore, it established that he should have been allowed to leave prison to go to Brussels to take possession of his seat. The decision was in line with the conclusions presented by the ECJ's advocate general: "Members of the European Parliament enjoy immunity before the start of their mandate," the ruling said. The following day, Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín were finally able to collect their temporary accreditation as MEPs.
Today, in a short act at the Congress of Deputies, the JEC asked newly-elected European representatives to comply with Article 224 of Spain's electoral law (LOREG), which establishes that, "within five days from their proclamation", the elected candidates "must swear or promise their compliance with the Constitution before the Central Electoral Commission" and stipulates that the JEC "will declare vacant the seats corresponding to the deputies of the European Parliament who have not complied with the Constitution and suspend all the prerogatives that may correspond due to the position". Just before starting, the re-elected Catalan Republican Left MEP, Diana Riba, asked if the pledge on the Constitution was "compulsory or optional", in view of the ruling of the European Court of Justice. Indeed, the JEC agreement asserts that two Supreme Court rulings endorse the need to comply with the constitutional oath or pledge and, for this reason, the electoral body "considers that, as long as the LOREG remains in force and no national or EU court questions its validity, the Spanish electoral administration has the duty to continue applying it". In the last European legislature, the JEC continued to assert that the exiled Catalan MEPs had not properly acquired their status due to their failure to come to Madrid and swear on the Constitution; but nevertheless those MEPs were able to exercise their full rights as parliamentarians for the full legislative period.
Toni Comín's reaction
This Monday afternoon, Comín addressed the media at the European Parliament in Brussels and called it "irrelevant" that the JEC did not include him in the list of MEPs. "President Roberta Metsola knows very well what she has to do, which is to respect European law and European jurisprudence," he declared. Thus, he recalled that the ruling of the European Court of Justice on Oriol Junqueras's seat is "unequivocal" and that it explains "very well" that it is not necessary to swear on the Spanish Constitution to acquire the status of MEP, which is why he has taken it for granted that he will obtain the credentials to attend the constituent plenary session of the European chamber, scheduled for July 16th to 19th in Strasbourg. "That is what the ECJ has indicated (to Metsola), and there is no room to avoid that", insisted Comín, who was confident that she would act "in accordance with European law". If the president of the chamber does not give him the credentials, what she will do is "risk receiving a legal suit against her decision".