Socialists will vote in favor of lifting Puigdemont’s immunity as MEP

The Spanish Socialist party will vote in favor of lifting exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s immunity as MEP on Tuesday. The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs will have its say on the issue on Tuesday at 4.45 pm, but the binding vote will take place in the upcoming plenary session of the chamber in the week beginning on 8 March. The report, written by ultra-conservative Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki, advises lifting Puigdemont’s immunity as MEP.

The committee discussed the paper on Monday, and is expected to be greenlighted by its members on Tuesday – the Socialists, the People’s Party and the Liberals have a majority in the chamber and are expected to all side against the interests of Puigdemont. However, the former Catalan president, and two other exiled former ministers, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, will have to wait until 8 March to know whether they can keep their immunity after having been elected as MEPs.

Report leaked

The paper proposes waiving their privileges, and the pro-independence leaders’ group, Junts per Catalunya, denounced a “breach of confidentiality,” since the chamber insists that no committee members can reveal the content of any report before its vote. Indeed, last Thursday, Puigdemont’s team announced they will file a complaint before the chamber speaker, David Sassoli, for the leak – they also threatened to take the whole procedure to the European Court of Justice if their immunity is waived, claiming that there have been “formal errors” made.

The committee’s president, Spain’s Ciudadanos MEP Adrián Vázquez, said that this breach could result in “sanctions” for the person responsible for the leak.

Extradition unclear

Following their appointment as European representatives, their extradition requests by Spain were frozen because they began to enjoy privileges as MEPs – yet, the Spanish judiciary has been for a year requesting that they lose these privileges so the procedure which could end up in them being handed over to Spain can continue.

Puigdemont, Ponsatí and Comín are wanted by Spain because of their role in the 2017 independence push – this is the third time the Supreme Court attempts to have them handed over, after two previous failed attempts in which either Belgium, Germany, and Scotland rejected the full terms of their extradition, or Spain withdrew the EU arrest warrant before it was denied.

Along with their lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí attended a hearing at the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs in January, to argue against the Spanish Supreme Court’s motion to waive their political immunity, the approval of which is necessary for Spain’s extradition attempt to move forward. These proceedings took place behind closed doors almost a year after the court’s initial request.

Even if the Catalan pro-independence politicians were stripped of their immunity, they would still retain their status as MEPs until a potential conviction barring them from office, even if Belgium, or Scotland in the case of Ponsatí, decided to hand them over to Spain. As the case of Lluís Puig demonstrated, not having political immunity does not automatically guarantee these politicians will be extradited.