Catalan separatist leader and former premier Carles Puigdemont and his former minister Toni ComÃn are now allowed to take their seats in the European Parliament.
They will likely be formally installed as admitted Members of the European Parliament during the plenary session in January. Yesterday, they already received access passes to EU buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Since the independence referendum in Catalonia, canceled by Madrid in 2017, Puigdemont and ComÃn have been living in exile in Belgium. They were also elected as members of the European Parliament in May. However, until now, Spain had prevented them from entering the European Parliament. Spain maintained that Puigdemont and ComÃn could not be MEPs because they had not traveled to Madrid to swear allegiance to the Spanish Constitution.
This additional requirement imposed by Spain has now been ruled invalid by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, after which the European Parliament lifted the ban against Puigdemont and ComÃn on Thursday. The duo wasted no time and went straight to the parliament building in Brussels on Friday. There, they received provisional access passes to handle some administrative matters.
The former Vice President of the Catalan government, Oriol Junqueras, who is imprisoned in Spain, was also not allowed by Madrid to take his seat in the EU Parliament. The EU court ruled on Thursday that due to his election, he enjoyed immunity and should have been released from pre-trial detention in June to travel to the parliament in Strasbourg. According to the court, elected MEPs have the right to attend the opening session "regardless of whether formalities required by national law have been fulfilled."
Spain has requested Belgium to extradite Puigdemont and ComÃn. The court in Brussels has postponed a hearing on the matter, partly to await a ruling from European judges. For the two Catalan leaders abroad, the European court's ruling has already had immediate consequences. The judiciary must now reconsider the case.