On 2 January 2020, a Belgian court suspended the arrest warrant issued against Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, citing his immunity as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). The decision follows the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling, which upheld the immunity of fellow MEP and Catalan separatist Oriol Junqueras i Vies. Mr. Junqueras i Vies was jailed last October for his role in the 2017 Catalan Independence Referendum.
LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS PRIOR TO THE BELGIAN COURT DECISION
Spain’s Supreme Court initially dropped its international and European arrest warrants issued against Carles Puigdemont ahead of Catalan regional elections and initially refused to reinstate the warrants despite the prosecution’s request for them to do so. The Supreme Court eventually did reinstate the warrants only to drop them again after a German court ruled that the former Catalan President, who was arrested while travelling through Germany, could not be extradited for rebellion because the German equivalent of high treason requires the defendant to have committed violence, although the court did rule that he could be extradited for misuse of public funds. However, the Supreme Court reinstated the arrest warrants for a second time following the court’s own conviction of nine secessionist leaders, including Carles Puigdemont, on charges of rebellion last September.
In April 2019, Carles Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists successfully stood for election to the European Parliament. However, none of the elected Catalan separatists took the oath of loyalty to the Spanish constitution, which is required under Spanish law. Thus, their seats were declared vacant by the Junta Electoral Central de España, the Spanish electoral commission. Oriol Junqueras applied to the ECJ to uphold his election as an MEP and his parliamentary immunity from criminal prosecution pursuant to Article 9 of Protocol No 7 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. in December 2019, the ECJ upheld Oriol Junqueras’s election as an MEP and thereby his immunity.
Following this ECJ’s recent decision in the case of his fellow Catalan MEP, the Belgian court said it could not extradite Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face trial or imprisonment.
SPAIN’S POSITION
Spain has gestured that it will accept both the ECJ’s decision and the Belgian court’s decision; Spain’s attorney general called for Oriol Junqueras’s release from prison following the ECJ decision. However, the Spanish courts may yet apply to the European Parliament to waive immunity. Such a move would be hugely controversial both in the European Parliament and in Spain, which is facing its fourth general election in as many years, as the major parties disagree on how to handle growing separatism in the country’s wealthiest region. It is also unclear how Spain will react if Carles Puigdemont returns in his official capacity as an MEP. The ECJ has already stressed that MEP’s have immunity while travelling on official business, but the domestic pressure to seize the leader will be immense.
Carles Puigdemont and other Catalan MEPs can now take their seats in the European Parliament. At this stage it is unclear how the exiled leader will use his newly acquired immunity to achieve Catalan independence, nevertheless, the movement now has a pan-European platform. Whether the Catalan leader’s platform will restrain the Spanish government’s actions in the autonomous region or force them to take an even harsher approach will depend on the results of Spain’s upcoming general election.
Samuel is a trainee solicitor and postgraduate at Cardiff University. He is active in several U.K.-based organisations campaigning on behalf of Hong Kong and BNOs. His research interests include transitional justice and the rule of law.