Judgment in Case T-115/20 Puigdemont i Casamajó and Comín i Oliveres v Parliament and in Case T-272/21 Puigdemont i Casamajó and Others v Parliament

Wednesday 5th July 2023

General Court

Judgment in Case T-115/20 Puigdemont i Casamajó and Comín i Oliveres v Parliament and in Case T-272/21 Puigdemont i Casamajó and Others v Parliament

(Law governing the institutions)

The three applicants stood as candidates in the elections to the European Parliament held in Spain on 26 May 2019. On 13 June 2019 the Junta Electoral Central (Central Electoral Commission, Spain) adopted the decision proclaiming the candidates elected to Parliament in those elections, which included the first and second applicants. On 17 June 2019 the Central Electoral Commission notified Parliament of the list of candidates elected in Spain, which did not include the names of the first and second applicants.

On 20 June 2019, it notified Parliament of a decision in which it found that the first and second applicants had not taken the oath to uphold the Spanish Constitution required by Spanish electoral law , and consequently declared the seats allocated to them in Parliament to be vacant and all prerogatives that might accrue to them by virtue of their office to be suspended until they had taken that oath. On 27 June 2019, the then President of Parliament informed the first and second applicants that he was unable to treat them as future members of Parliament.

On 14 October 2019 the investigating judge of the Criminal Division of the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court, Spain) issued a national arrest warrant, a European arrest warrant and an international arrest warrant for the first applicant, so that he could be tried in the criminal proceedings brought against them by the VOX political party, for acts falling within the offences of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds. On 4 November 2019, similar arrest warrants were issued by the same judge for the second and third applicants. On 13 January 2020, the President of the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) notified Parliament of the request to lift the parliamentary immunity of the first and second applicants.

At the plenary sitting of 13 January 2020, Parliament took note, following the Junqueras Vies judgment, of the election to Parliament of the first and second applicants with effect from 2 July 2019, the date of the opening of the first session of the newly elected Parliament following the elections of 26 May 2019. On 16 January 2020, the Vice-President of Parliament notified the plenary of the requests for waiver of the immunity of the first and second applicants and referred them to the committee responsible, namely Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.

On 10 February 2020, following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union on 31 January 2020, Parliament noted the election of the third applicant as a Member of Parliament with effect from 1 February 2020. On the same day, the President of the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) notified Parliament of the request for the waiver of the third applicant’s parliamentary immunity.

On 13 February 2020, the Vice-President of Parliament notified the plenary sitting of the request to waive the third applicant’s immunity and referred it to the Committee on Legal Affairs. After hearing the applicants, the Committee on Legal Affairs adopted three reports on the requests for waiver of their immunity.

By three decisions of 9 March 2021, Parliament granted the requests for waiver of the immunity of the three applicants, who then brought an action for annulment of those three decisions before the General Court.

Background Documents T-115/20 Background Documents T-272/21