The European Parliament has announced this Wednesday that it has not been able to verify the credentials of the former president of the Generalitat, nor of the MEPs Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí (Junts), nor Jordi Solé, from ERC, because the institution assures that it has not received the necessary notification by the Central Electoral Board.
The president of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, the Citizens MEP, Adrián Vázquez, has announced that “the credentials cannot be verified” of the four MEPs. A mandatory procedure that all MEPs must comply with when they have the minutes and which confirms that there is no compatibility with the position, a formalism that had been delayed due to the pandemic, and after the departure of the British deputies when Brexit occurred. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has announced the confirmation process of 49 MEPs, but in which the four Catalan politicians are not included.
For this reason, the parliamentary commission has asked the president of the institution to request this information from the Central Electoral Board and it can be sent. This document must confirm that MEPs have complied with national legislation, including the oath of the Constitution.
An unprecedented situation in the history of the institution, since it will have to be the Central Electoral Board that decides what happens to these MEPs from now on, and that it gives explanations for the lack of credential information "and the consequences of it" .
Once it has received the request from the president of the European Parliament, the Board will be the one to announce "the prerogatives attached to the position". This implies that this body will decide whether to withdraw the salary or even the vote of MEPs, if it confirms that they have not met the requirements of Spanish law to be MEPs.
According to parliamentary sources, there is the option that the post may also become vacant. In any case, the MEPs —waiting for what the Board can decide, which has no established deadlines to respond— will be able to continue in their positions, without changes, and carrying out the same work as up to now.
However, legal doubts persist. In 2019, Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí were able to collect their MEP minutes thanks to a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the case of Oriol Junqueras, then in prison, which determined that MEPs could take their seats without having to take an oath or accept the charge.
However, Adrián Vázquez has pointed out that "they are two different issues", because the sentence referred to immunity, but "it does not eliminate the requirements set by the law of each member state (...) nor, by extension, the need to receive notification officer of the competent authorities”, defended the MEP.
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