The General Court of the EU has ruled this Tuesday inadmissible the appeal filed by Oriol Junqueras against the decision of the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, to vacate his seat last January.
The High Court considers that Sassoli limited himself to "transmitting to the institution information on a pre-existing legal situation derived exclusively from the decisions of the Spanish authorities."
The Luxembourg court, in its brief, explains that the head of the European Parliament "does not have any competence to control the decision of the authorities of a Member State declaring the cancellation of the mandate of a European deputy in application of the National law, and the decision to declare the vacancy of the seat that results from it, since the institution is simply informed of this vacancy by the national authorities. "
And given that on January 13, 2020, the Italian politician did nothing more than inform the institution of a pre-existing legal situation, his action "cannot be the subject of an annulment appeal."
The case dates back to exactly one year ago.
Junqueras, like Carles Puigdemont or Toni Comín, had been elected as MEPs in the May 2019 European elections. But having not formalized the procedures required by Spanish law, which involve paperwork in Madrid, they never collected their minutes or entered in the Eurocamara.
Both appealed to the European Justice and in December of last year the CJEU agreed with them, stating that with European standards in hand, a person becomes a deputy and enjoys their privileges and immunities as soon as the result of the polls is certified.
Administrative procedures are not necessary, as the Spanish Government argued, but also the legal services of the Parliament itself.
Therefore, that same day Sassoli informed the plenary chamber of the decision and Puigdemont and Comín took possession of their seats in the first session of 2020 in Strasbourg.
The case of Junqueras, however, is different.
He did not leave Spain.
He was tried and convicted and that changes everything.
The judgment of the Supreme Court issued on October 14, 2019 sentenced him to thirteen years in prison and another as many of absolute disqualification, with definitive deprivation of all his honors, jobs and public positions, including elective ones, and inability to obtain or exercise other new.
On January 3, 2020, the Spanish Central Electoral Board declared Junqueras ineligible.
On January 9, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled on the effects of the CJEU ruling and considered that it was not appropriate to authorize the transfer of the former vice-president of the Generalitat to the headquarters of the European Parliament, "nor to agree to his freedom, nor to declare the nullity of the judgment of October 14, 2019, nor to process the request for suspension of parliamentary immunity before the European Parliament ".
With all this information, in that plenary session mentioned on January 13, in Strasbourg, President Sassoli announced that the institution was taking note of the election to the European Parliament in Junqueras with effect from July 2, 2019, but also found that a As a result of the agreement of the Central Electoral Board of January 3, 2020 and the order of the Supreme Court of January 9, 2020, the European Parliament recorded the vacancy of the seat of the ERC leader with effect from January 3, 2020.
The independence leader's lawyers appealed and today the General Court has not agreed with them.
The fact of informing the plenary cannot be appealed.
And furthermore, verification of compliance by national authorities "of the procedures provided for in national law and Union law is not the competence of the European Parliament, but rather of the Spanish courts and, where appropriate, the Court of Justice. Justice when it hears an appeal for non-compliance ".
In its order, the General Court states that the President of the European Parliament "is in no way obliged to take measures to confirm the immunity of a European Member, and that he has a discretion in this regard, even when the Member is in custody or see his freedom of movement restricted in manifest violation of his privileges and immunities. This discretionary power excludes the right of Mr. Junqueras to demand that the President of the European Parliament adopt urgent measures to confirm his immunity ".
An appeal may be lodged against decisions of the General Court before the Court of Justice, the highest body in Luxembourg, but one limited to questions of law.
Junqueras has a period of two months and ten days from the notification of the resolution.
With today's, Junqueras has already received three refusals from the CJEU.
In January, when the European Parliament declared his seat empty, he presented two appeals to the Court.
The first, asking for the annulment of the Sassoli decision, on which the magistrates have ruled today.
But in addition, Junqueras then asked the CJEU to adopt provisional measures, that is, to force Spain and the chamber to allow him to collect the seat until there was a firm decision on his case.
In a very quick decision, on March 3, 2020, the Vice President of the General Court dismissed the request for provisional measures, arguing that the Catalan leader had failed to demonstrate that the granting of the provisional measures requested was justified in fact and in law (fumus boni iris).
Junqueras then filed an appeal against this order, but in October they said no again.
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