The former President of the Government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, is no longer allowed to enter the buildings of the European Parliament after the Spanish judicial authorities issued a new European Arrest Warrant (EAW) on Monday. According to Spanish media, this arrest warrant is part of some form of cooperation between member states and European institutions.
The parliament also prevented some Catalan politicians from accessing the EU buildings in October 2017 & #8211; when the first arrest warrant was issued. Three Catalan politicians who were elected to the European Parliament in May may only enter the buildings as 'visitors'. Brussels is thus preventing Madrid from taking legal action against EU.
The representative of the Catalan government in the EU, Meritxell Serret, demanded on Tuesday that the European authorities intervene to pave the way for a political dialogue between Spain and Catalonia.
On Monday, the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan regional political leaders to 13 years in prison for incitement and misuse of public funds for their role in the failed 2017 referendum in the region for declaring independence.
The penalties currently cause great outrage in Spain. The leaders of the Catalan separatists called on their supporters to get out into the streets en masse, which they do.
Former Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont and two other fled Catalan politicians were not on trial, as he fled to Belgium, and he was more likely to refuse to extradite him to justice in Madrid. Belgium did so because Belgian criminal law has no equivalent for the 'rebellion' indictment. So now there is a new arrest warrant. It is still unclear how Belgium will respond to this. Puigdemont called the sentence itself "a horror act".