Top EU Court Rejects Bid To Lift Catalan Separatist Leader Puigdemont’s Immunity

By Inés Fernández-Pontes

(EurActiv) -- The EU’s top court on Thursday overturned the European Parliament’s decision to remove the political immunity of Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and two allies.

The ruling said that the MEP put in charge of examining whether Puigdemont’s immunity should be lifted, known as the rapporteur, was not impartial.

The rapporteur, Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki, belonged to the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, which then included Spain’s far-right party Vox. The party strongly opposes Catalan independence and has backed legal action against the former separatist president.

The court also noted the appointed rapporteur organised an event in 2019 under the slogan “Catalonia is Spain”, attended by Vox Secretary-General Ignacio Garriga.

Judges said the Parliament must “exclude a rapporteur who is a member of a political group which belong to members of the political party” that pushed for criminal proceedings against the EU lawmaker concerned.

Because that process was not respected, the Court annulled Parliament’s 2021 decision to lift the immunity of Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia, and his former ministers Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí.

The Parliament had acted on a request from Spain’s top court in 2020 to waive their immunity so it could reactivate European arrest warrants and bring them to trial in Madrid.

Spanish judges charged them and others in 2018 with serious offences, including misuse of public funds, for their role in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which Madrid considers illegal.

By then, Puigdemont, Comín, and Ponsatí had fled to Belgium and, in 2019, became MEPs after standing in the European elections, thereby gaining political immunity.

Although Thursday’s verdict is a significant victory for the Catalan leader, in practice, the ruling would seemingly have little immediate impact, as Puigdemont and Ponsatí are no longer EU lawmakers.

Only Toni Comín stood for re-election in 2024 and secured enough votes to retain his seat. However, he has not travelled to Madrid to take the required constitutional oath, saying he fears arrest. As a result, he is considered an “inactive” MEP and his seat remains in limbo, pending judicial clarity.

At the request of Spanish judges, the EU court is also assessing whether the secessionist movement in Catalonia harmed the EU’s financial interests.

This is particularly pertinent to Puigdemont’s situation, given that domestic court cases involving numerous senior Catalan lawmakers – including the former Catalan president himself  – who have been accused of public embezzlement are on hold until the court delivers its verdict.