TC rejects Puigdemont's appeal against the JEC's decision not to include him as a MEP because he already exercises

He says that both he and Comín already serve as MEPs after the endorsement of the European Parliament

MADRID, 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Constitutional Court (TC) has dismissed the appeal filed by the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the former minister Toni Comín against the decision of the Central Electoral Board (JEC) not to include them in 2019 in the list of elected deputies to the European Parliament because In fact, they are already freely exercising their functions as MEPs following the European Parliament's decision on the matter.

The sentence, presented by magistrate Cándido Conde-Pumpido, thus rejects the protection in which the Catalan independence leader questioned the decision of the Central Electoral Board (JEC), judicially ratified, not to include them in the list of elected deputies communicated to the European Parliament as a consequence of not having observed the Constitution in person after the elections held on May 26, 2019.

The TC considers that since eleven months before the application for amparo was filed, in a plenary session on January 13, 2020, the European Parliament accepted their election as European deputies with retroactive effect, both were authorized to assume their functions, exercise their representative mandate and occupy their seats, fully exercising their rights corresponding to the representative position for which they were elected.

Thus, the plenary session of the high court indicates that even before resorting to the amparo process, by an act of public power, the appellants obtained de facto out-of-court satisfaction of their claims to reestablish or preserve the fundamental rights denounced, for which reason their eventual injury does not survive.

The TC recalls in its resolution that the amparo procedural channel is not suitable for ruling on purely declaratory claims unrelated to a real and effective injury to the rights invoked.

Thus, they add, this fact has led to assess the extinction of the object of the main claim for amparo, and all its derivatives, which justifies the dismissal of the claims made.