The European Parliament has not managed to complete the process of verifying the credentials of three MEPs from JxCat, Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, as well as the ERC deputy Jordi Solé, because they have not received the relevant notification and the necessary documentation from the Spanish Central Electoral Board.
The president of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament, the Spaniard Adrián Vázquez (Citizens), announced at a press conference that these four MEPs have not fulfilled before the JEC "all the requirements that national legislation demands of them" and this entity, therefore, it has not sent the information to the European Parliament.
For this reason, the Legal Affairs Committee will require the Presidency of the European Parliament to formally request the Spanish JEC to send a notification and documentation for the verification of credentials or, if this is not possible, "the explanation of their absence and the consequences derived from it.
The issue of deputy status has already been resolved by the EU Court of Justice in a ruling at the end of 2020 in which it recognized the immunity of Oriol Junqueras (ERC) as a MEP when he was already serving a sentence in prison on the understanding that a person elected to the European Parliament acquires the status of member of said institution from the official proclamation of the results and enjoys from that moment the immunities derived from such status. This sentence opened the door to Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí so that they could access the MEP act.
However, Vázquez considers that the CJEU then ruled on Junqueras's immunity and not on the prior procedures prescribed by the JEC to access the credentials, so, as he explained this afternoon to the media, "we do not question whether they have the minutes, but given the lack of notification, we cannot complete the parliamentary procedure".
Faced with a case that is unprecedented in the European Parliament, parliamentary sources point out that, among the possible options, the Electoral Board could decide to leave the act vacant, establish the loss of certain rights as deputies (salary, money for advisors or the same vote) or that they temporarily continue without this verification.
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