The European Parliament will leave the seat of Junts MEP Toni Comín vacant until a new ruling from the European legal system definitively resolves the dispute over the obligations of elected parliamentarians in taking possession of their minutes. In the opinion of the Central Electoral Committee, Obeying the Constitution is an essential requirementHowever, a 2019 ruling concerning the case of Oriol Junqueras, who was unable to do so because he was in prison, established that MEPs enjoy their prerogatives from the moment they are elected.
Based on that ruling, the European Parliament now interprets that Comín can travel to Spain with immunity, that is, without being detained on the basis of the order imposed on him by the processes carrying out the administrative procedures at the Central Electoral Bureau. However, this step is very risky and neither Carles Puigdemont nor Comín have travelled to Spain since becoming Members of the European Parliament, precisely because of the possibility of being arrested, despite their immunity, on the assumption that the arrest warrant has nothing to do with facts related to his parliamentary activity.
Following the ruling of the European Justice in the Junqueras case in December 2019, the then President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, admitted Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí as Members of the European Parliament. Seven months after the rest of the parliamentarians. However, sources close to the case believe that this interpretation went “beyond” what was established in the ruling and that, based on “current case law”, the European Parliament does not have “freedom” to decide who is a Member of the European Parliament and who is not, which must be governed by the documentation sent by the national authorities, in this case the Central Electoral Council, which left Comín’s seat vacant for not complying with the Magna Carta, a requirement laid down in the Electoral Law.
However, the 2019 ruling in Junqueras found that “the status of Member of the European Parliament results from the mere election of the interested party and that he or she acquires such status as a result of the official publication of the results by the Member States.” In the official gazette, Comín's name is listed as one of the deputies elected in the June 9 elections.
However, the European Parliament now interprets that only the names that are officially on the list of elected candidates can be recognized as MEPs, according to the EFE agency. What the European Parliament will do is keep Comín's seat vacant until a new ruling is made by the European justice system, which is expected within a few months after the appeal filed by Puigdemont and Comín themselves.
In 2019, when the then President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani (of the EPP), denied them access to the seat for failing to comply with the Constitution, therefore they were not on the list of MEPs sent by the JEC, the former President and the former Minister went to European Justice. Three years later, The General Court of the EU (GCEU) dismissed the claim of the leaders of the Junts when they understood that these were acts that could not be acted upon. They had already won the seat thanks to the verdict on the decision of Junqueras and Sassoli, for which the right never forgave him.
However, they appealed the ruling to the CJEU. And it is the verdict that is still pending and on which the decision of the European Parliament will depend. For now, The Attorney General agreed with Puigdemont and Comín and considered that the European Parliament had made a mistake by leaving them without a seat. “On the one hand, the President of the European Parliament questioned the officially announced election results, despite the fact that Parliament was bound by the proclamation of 13 June 2019, which was the official announcement of the results. On the contrary, the President chose to follow subsequent notifications from the Spanish authorities, which did not faithfully and completely reflect those results,” the lawyer said.
The lawyers’ decisions are not binding on Luxembourg judges, but they uphold their judgments in a large percentage of cases. The lawyer considered that the “suspension” of Puigdemont and Comín constituted a breach of EU law, as he claims that “no provision of this law authorizes a Member State to suspend the prerogatives of Members of the European Parliament.”
Parliamentary sources explain that they will follow the criteria established by the CJEU in this new ruling and also point out that if the Advocate General's criteria are followed, it will be necessary for Spain to amend its electoral law so as not to impose requirements on Members of the European Parliament once they have been elected in the elections to take possession of their minutes.
After the Electoral Council’s decision to remove him from the list sent to the European Parliament, Comín was confident that he would have no problem accessing his seat due to the precedent of the Junqueras ruling and threatened the President of the European Parliament, Roberta. Metsola, if I prevented him from doing so. “There is European case law that explains that the promise of the Constitution is not relevant,” the MEP said.