The European Union has dismissed Catalan leader Puigdemont’s request for being an MEP as the top appeal court did not condone the title of the former.
On the 8th of February The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has firmly declined the appeal of the Catalonia’s separatist leader Carles Puigdemont’s to be recognized as an MEP. The ruling also affect another Catalan politician, Toni Comín, who was elected in the 2019 polls but cannot take his seat.
The court justified the actions of the former president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, as the latter performed his legal obligations by not considering both Puigdemont and Comìn as the MEPs. As for Tajani, they explained that he “did no more than his duty, as he relied on the Spanish official list of elected MEPs.”
By the Spanish legal requirement, every representative that has been aspiring for that position has to swear that they will uphold the national constitution, for the candidacy to be validated by the European Parliament. Neither Puigdemont nor Comín were able to take this oath themselves as both officials have been in hiding from the Spanish judiciary system after involvement in an unlawful Catalonia’s referendum in 2017. Therefore, the Spanish Central Electoral Commission annulled those positions.
Although Puigdemont and Comín were able to claim their seats briefly in 2020 due to a positive ruling important to another Catalan politician, today’s ruling directly jeopardises Comín’s future in the parliament as an MEP. He was the only candidate from the “Together for Catalonia” party in the June 2024 European elections, which the Parliament did not confirm his status until this last ruling of the court.
The European Parliament has noted the ruling and is studying the legal consequences at the moment, while Puigademont and Comin have not commented the decision of the court.
