International campaign against parliamentary immunity waiver of Catalan MEPs

The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) has launched a campaign named #DefendCataloniaSaveEu against the waiver of the parliamentary immunity of Catalan MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. The Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of the initiative to waive the three MEPs’ immunity, based on a report prepared by ultra-conservative Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki, from the European Conservative and Reformists Group, which includes the Spanish far-right party VOX. This vote, however, was advisory. The final decision will be made by all MEPs in a binding vote to take place during the upcoming plenary session in the week beginning 8 March.

Under the campaign #DefendCataloniaSaveEu, which can be followed on social media, the ANC calls citizens all over the EU to raise their voices and address their representatives at the European Parliament to express concern on the matter and calling them to vote against the immunity waiver. The campaign will include several videos and a website in four languages so users can send predetermined messages to the European Parliamentary Groups leaders through mailing and Twitter.

The pro-independence civil society organization will also send communications to every MEP and to representatives of political groups and civil society organizations across Europe with information on the issue. The communications include a letter from the Catalan National Assembly president, Elisenda Paluzie, in which she denounces “the systematic repressive campaign of Spanish authorities against the Catalan people”. She also calls the MEPs to vote against the waiver of immunity, “as it poses a threat to the right to participation of more than a million EU citizens that voted for the three Catalan MEPs, and therefore to the democratic rights of all EU citizens”.