European justice rejects Puigdemont's appeal against the European Parliament for initially denying him the seat

The General Court of the EU has declared this Tuesday inadmissible the appeal for annulment presented by the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, and his former counselor, Toni Comín, against the decision adopted by the former president of the European Parliament: the Italian Antonio Tajani, who then led the EU hemicycle, initially refused to recognize them as European deputies after the European elections in May 2019, claiming that they could not be treated as future members of the European Parliament, since their names did not appear on the list of elected candidates officially notified by the Spanish authorities.

Finally, they took office as MEP six months later.

In the judgment, which can be appealed before the Court of Justice of the EU, the General Court concludes that the impossibility of the applicants to assume their functions, to exercise their mandates and to occupy their seats in the European Parliament at this time does not derive from the refusal of the former president of this institution to recognize the status of European deputy, but of the application of Spanish law;

This refusal, affirms the TGUE, is reflected in the notifications of the Spanish Central Electoral Board, "with respect to which the former President of the Parliament and, more generally, the Parliament did not have any margin of appreciation".

The matter, which represents a legal setback for the Junts MEPs, is one of the numerous ramifications of the tangled legal case of Puigdemont and the rest of the pro-independence politicians who have fled in Belgium since 2017 and are fugitives from justice for their participation in the

- independence process.

Comín and the

finally took possession of their minutes as MEPs six months after the start of the legislature, a fact that facilitated the sentence of the European justice on the immunity of Oriol Junqueras, which affirmed that he should have been recognized as a MEP.

Puigdemont and Comín, together with Clara Ponsatí, also a former councilor and MEP for Junts, who later entered the hemicycle, after the gap left by the British deputies after Brexit, continue to serve as MEPs, although with numerous twists and turns around to the immunity they enjoy, derived from the long legal battle with the Spanish justice system, which has been claiming them for more than four and a half years for sedition and embezzlement.

In May, the CJEU decided to provisionally restore immunity to the three pro-sovereignty politicians, understanding that there is "a high probability" that they will be arrested, which would cause them "serious and irreparable harm."

In this Wednesday's ruling, the legal disquisitions of the TGUE focus on elucidating whether the refusal of the former president of the European Parliament to recognize the applicants as European deputies, contained in a letter sent to Puigdemont and Comín on June 27, 2019 , is or is not an actionable act.

The General Court finally considers that “it does not constitute an act that produces binding legal effects that may affect the interests of the plaintiffs”, for which reason it considers the appeal for annulment against said refusal to be inadmissible.

It also considers inadmissible the appeal against an internal instruction of May 29, 2019 in which it was requested to deny all candidates elected in Spain access to the "

" of the European Parliament and suspend their accreditation until Parliament had received official confirmation. of your choice;

in this case, the TGUE argues that this instruction was of a "provisional nature" and takes into account "the context in which it was adopted" and that "it did not have binding legal effects that could affect the interests of the plaintiffs."