The Court of Auditors opens a period of nine days to determine which parties are still in the case on foreign promotion of the procés

Carles Puigdemont greets former Catalan president Artur Mas, in a ceremony in 2017.Quique García (EFE)

The Court of Auditors has taken a new step to open the prosecution phase of the file for the expenses of promoting the

abroad. The agency has summoned the parties to decide within a period of nine business days whether to remain in person in the proceedings or to waive it. The resolution, dated last day 27, was published this Wednesday as an edict in the Official State Gazette (BOE) "with the purpose that those legally authorized to maintain or oppose the claim of accounting responsibility can appear in the proceedings, in person ”, within the aforementioned period.

Once the Court of Auditors is aware of which accusations are still in the procedure - until now they have been the State Attorney, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Catalan Civil Society - a new period of 20 days will be opened for the corresponding demands to be formulated. There is already evidence that the State Bar will not continue in this procedure, considering that its function is to defend the interests of the State administration, which is not considered harmed by the facts prosecuted. This is due to the fact that the funds used for the external promotion of the

corresponded to the Generalitat, which in turn denies having suffered any damage and rejects the thesis that irregular expenses were incurred to promote abroad the plans to achieve the independence of Catalonia.

The Court of Auditors approved in June a provisional liquidation act that estimated the accounting responsibility that 34 former high-ranking officials and officials of the Generalitat would have incurred at 5.4 million euros for said foreign promotion work. Among them are former presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, former vice president Oriol Junqueras and former councilors Andreu Mas-Colell and Raül Romeva. All those investigated filed an appeal against the liquidation act, which was confirmed in its entirety, as the challenges had been rejected, the core of which was that the file had been instructed causing absolute defenselessness to those investigated.

The Generalitat - which in turn maintains its claim to guarantee the bonds of its former senior officials - considers that there is no accounting responsibility, among other reasons because the investigated would have acted within the framework of their powers in foreign action matters.

With the renewal of the Court of Accounts last November, the final admission or rejection of the guarantees with which the Generalitat wants to face the guarantee of the aforementioned 5.4 million euros was pending resolution.