The CJEU will pronounce on December 22 on the seat of Junqueras as MEP

MADRID, 24 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will rule on December 22 on the appeal filed by the defense of the leader of ERC and former vice president of the Generalitat, Oriol Junqueras, against the decision of the General Court to declare inadmissible the appeal in which he challenged the declaration of his seat as a vacant MEP.

Junqueras was elected MEP in the European Parliament elections in May 2019, but, when he did not obtain permission to go to swear or promise to abide by the Spanish Constitution as required by national regulations, his seat was declared vacant by the Central Electoral Board.

In the plenary session of January 2020, the then president of the Eurochamber informed the rest of the House of the election of Junqueras as MEP for the purposes of July 2, 2019 but also that his seat was vacant as of January 3 of 2020, as a consequence of the fact that the Supreme Court considered that the independence leader did not enjoy parliamentary immunity under national law and therefore it was not appropriate to authorize his displacement or agree on his release.

As reported by the court on Thursday, the magistrates are expected to hand down their sentence three days before Christmas on Junqueras's appeal against the resolution of the General Court that concluded that the Eurochamber "did nothing more than transmit to the institution information about a situation pre-existing legal system, derived exclusively from the decisions of the Spanish authorities".

Junqueras, sentenced to 13 years in prison for sedition and embezzlement in the framework of the 'procés' trial, unsuccessfully demanded that Parliament's decision to confirm the vacancy of his seat be suspended. The CJEU magistrates will resolve next December whether or not the decision of the General Court was appropriate.

On this matter, Maciej Szpunar, the Advocate General of the CJUE, spoke last June. Although his opinion is not binding on the court, the vast majority of sentences handed down follow the line set by his opinions.

Specifically, the General Advocate concluded that Junqueras's appeal must be rejected. In his opinion, he endorsed an order of the General Court of the EU issued in December 2020.

The European lawyer reasoned that the Court based in Luxembourg then correctly estimated that the then president of the European Parliament could only "start from the premise that eligibility is part of the electoral procedure regulated by the Law of the Member States" and that the institution Union "has no competence to control national decisions".

Regarding the allegation by Junqueras' defense that the General Court erred in law by declaring that Parliament did not have powers to review the cause of incompatibility that led to the loss of his mandate, the General Advocate indicated that this allegation It is based on a non-existent legal norm.

In addition, it pointed out that Junqueras "has not been able to effectively challenge" the origin of the General Court's reasoning regarding inadmissibility.