The European Parliament announced Friday that retired to Oriol Junqueras, the condition of mep, after a report Thursday by the Supreme Court that the independence leader is sentenced to 13 years in prison and disqualification, by the judgment of the procés. Sources of the Chamber have advance to this newspaper that stops to consider the leader of ERC euro mp from a week ago. “Taking into account the decision of the Central Electoral Board and in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court, the mandate of Junqueras expired with effect from 3 January 2020”, said the president of the institution, David Sassoli, in a press release made public this afternoon.
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That day, the Parliament received the communication of the Central Electoral Board in which he solved that, in application of article 6.2 of the Organic Law on the General Electoral Regime, “are ineligible those convicted by final judgment to imprisonment, in the duration of the penalty.” However, the European Parliament itself estimated that in the first six months of legislature Junqueras was mep, which could allow you to perceive the wages are not collected. “The mandates of the lords Junqueras, Puigdemont and Comín began on July 2, 2019, as a result of the official declaration of the results of the european elections [on 26 may] by the competent authorities in spain”, indicates Sassoli.
With his refusal to keep him in the position of mep, the european Parliament interpreted that there is no object to a decision of the Spanish justice, as he explains the own Sassoli. “According to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Parliament is bound to take notice without delay of the decisions, which definitively take the competent judicial authorities of the member States”.
The defense of Junqueras has not been given up, and has announced it will appeal to the General Court of the European Union. In its ruling of three weeks ago, the judges community left in the hands of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court the responsibility of “assessing the effects combined with the immunities that it enjoys mr. Junqueras”.
The measure, which will be communicated officially by the president of the European Parliament on the 13th of January to the beginning of the full, comes a day after the Parliament received the resolution by which the Supreme Court considers that the leader of ERC has been disqualified from acting as a member of parliament and, therefore, does not give you permission to go to the first session of 2020 this Monday in Strasbourg. The european Parliament received the letter of the Spanish justice, this Thursday at around 14: 15 and, after analyzing their content, the legal services have concluded that the vice-president of the Catalan government and leader of ERC has ceased to be a member and Spain must communicate “with haste” to the name of your substitute.
The european Chamber, in this way, gives back to the process that, under the argument of the sentence of the Court of Luxembourg, put in operation last Monday. At the beginning of the week recognized Junqueras as a mep in an internal memo sent to administrative services, was included in the list of parliamentarians who figure in the web and set up a mailbox with your name at its headquarters in Brussels, all this in compliance of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in the last 19th of December.
Among the members of the european Parliament there have been immediate reactions to stay Junqueras without seat. The spokesman of the PP in the capital community, Dolors Montserrat, has celebrated the measure as “a new victory for the democrats and a defeat for those that attempted against democracy and seeking to use the european institutions to lie to you and damage to Spain.” The counterpart of Citizens, Luis Garicano, has also applauded the result. “Immunity is not impunity. Junqueras is not, nor will be, a member”. The mep Vox Jorge Buxadé estimated that it still “there are two injustices pending”, in reference to the recognition as members of parliament ex-president Carles Puigdemont, and the exconsejero Toni Comín. While the representative of United we Can Sira Rego believes that the judges may end up discrediting the European Parliament in the future. “Has joined the farce knowing that the result, once exhausted the procedure, will surely then be in evidence.”
The leader of the european socialists, the Spanish Iratxe García, has praised the figure of the president of the chamber. Believes that the Italian Sassoli, also a member of the family, a social democrat, has always been “scrupulous with the law”, but has asked the leader of the PP, Paul Married, that does not seek to monetize the veto to Junqueras own benefit. “Respect institutions and stop the use of the Catalan question to get political mileage because it is harmful to the credibility of our legal system. Your irresponsibility we end up paying all”, have been criticized.
No news suplicatorio of Llarena
Sources of the European Parliament noted in the afternoon of this Friday that still have not received the suplicatorio —permit application— submitted to the European Parliament by the judge of the Supreme Court Paul Llarena to be able to proceed criminally against the former Catalan Carles Puigdemont, and the exconseller Toni Comín. The same sources indicate that the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, will report in full when you receive it, and immediately afterwards will go to the Legal Affairs committee of the Chamber. The judge of the Supreme requested a suspension of his immunity so that Belgium can resume the euroorden issued against pro-independence leaders, although the process to cause them to lose this protection can last for months.
