There's been a key personnel change following a clash within Spanish justice over the European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) issued against the Catalan pro-independence politicians in exile. Specifically, the differences were between the Supreme Court and the State Solicitors' Office - legal representatives of the Spanish government - and they emerged earlier this year. When the EU General Court refused to return parliamentary immunity to MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí in July, one of the decisive arguments it used was that of the state solicitors, who had warned that no court in the Union could execute the arrest warrants until the EU Court of Justice had ruled on the preliminary questions submitted by Spanish judge Pablo Llarena. The person who led that report was the Spanish state solicitor representing the government of Spain at the Luxembourg-based EU courts, working under the auspices of the foreign ministry: Sonsoles Centeno.
In May, judge Llarena raised questions in the high Luxembourg court about Belgium's decision not to extradite the exiled pro-independence politician Lluís Puig, and at that time Centeno warned that until the European court responded, the whole procedure was suspended. The argument she put forward was the same one as that used by the Sardinian court when it released Carles Puigdemont at the end of September: as long as there is a preliminary question pending, the EAW procedure is suspended. However, this position was contradicted by Spain's Supreme Court, which, from the moment that Puigdemont's arrest became known, asserted that the arrest warrants were still in force.
The Supreme Court had no hesitation in indicating that it was the report of the Spanish solicitor which was responsible for the decision of the Sardinian court to release Puigdemont, and several Spanish media reports blamed Centeno for having committed an "error" that made possible the release of Puigdemont by Italian justice.
Two months after that storm, it has emerged that Sonsoles Centeno is leaving her position to work for a private law firm. According to the Spanish digital newspaper El Confidencial, the lawyer has taken a leave of absence from her job as a state legal representative and will start working as a partner for the new law firm being opened next year in Brussels by the Pérez-Llorca legal partnership.
This firm said in a press release that Centeno has an in-depth knowledge of the European institutions, given that, among her other responsibilities, she was a solicitor at the EU General Court and a legal adviser to the Permanent Representation of Spain at the EU in Brussels.
However, Centeno, after becoming the object of the wrath of the Supreme Court, will now dedicate her expertise to a private firm.
In the main image, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg / ACN