European arrest warrants
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 4:23 am
The decision on whether or not to lift their immunity was incumbent upon the European Parliament that had to vote with a simple majority on the case. The Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament was expected to adopt a recommendation on the matter prior to the plenary session of 8 March 2021, paying special attention to whether there was a clear case of ‘fumus persecutionis’, “i.e.“a well-founded suspicion that the legal proceedings have been instituted with the intention of causing political damage to the Member’.”
This whole situation thus undermined all previous efforts to depoliticise phone number library extradition as it entangled the political and judicial spheres to decide whether Spain would be allowed to proceed with theCatalan MEPs. Not only that, the European Parliament ultimately adjudicated on whether or not Catalan MEPs were in fact victim of political persecution, an outcome to which the possibility to proceed with their surrenders was tied. Following the vote of its Committee on Legal Affairs, the European parliament eventually sided with Spain on this explosive case by arguing – for all three MEPs: Puigdemont, Ponsati and Junqueras – that the criminal proceedings against Catalan exiles concerned opinions expressed or vote casted before their appointment as MEP and that therefore the Spanish prosecutions could not possibly be aimed at undermining their hypothetical future mandate.
This whole situation thus undermined all previous efforts to depoliticise phone number library extradition as it entangled the political and judicial spheres to decide whether Spain would be allowed to proceed with theCatalan MEPs. Not only that, the European Parliament ultimately adjudicated on whether or not Catalan MEPs were in fact victim of political persecution, an outcome to which the possibility to proceed with their surrenders was tied. Following the vote of its Committee on Legal Affairs, the European parliament eventually sided with Spain on this explosive case by arguing – for all three MEPs: Puigdemont, Ponsati and Junqueras – that the criminal proceedings against Catalan exiles concerned opinions expressed or vote casted before their appointment as MEP and that therefore the Spanish prosecutions could not possibly be aimed at undermining their hypothetical future mandate.