The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the first appeal by former president Carles Puigdemont in the case of his seat in the European Parliament. According to the notification to which the ACN agency has had access, on July 7, the court based in Strasbourg inadmissible the lawsuit of the former president and the former minister Toni Comín against Spain for the refusal of the Central Electoral Board to include them in the list of MEPs that must be sent to the European Parliament. The ECHR considered that the possible violation of their political rights has already been "repaired", since the Spanish Constitutional Court recognized Puigdemont and Comín as MEPs.
"The plaintiff has already obtained recognition of any alleged violation and appropriate redress at the domestic level and, therefore, can no longer claim to be a victim of a violation of the convention or the protocols," Judge Peeter Roosma said in the former president. and Junts MEP in July. It is the first case of Puigdemont that has arrived in Strasbourg and has not passed the first filter.
Puigdemont and Comín appealed to the ECHR after the TC rejected their appeal for protection due to the JEC's refusal to recognize them as MEPs despite the fact that the European Parliament already accepted them in January 2020.
Defense sources express "internal satisfaction" despite the inadmissibility in Strasbourg because, they say, the TC "did recognize that they had the status of MEPs. In any case, the legal team of Puigdemont and Comín also went to the TDEH for possible violation of human rights, which is now considered repaired.
As a result of the procés case, Puigdemont has a whole series of legal cases in both the Spanish courts and the courts of the European Union. For example, he is waiting for the EU Court of Justice to validate the lifting of his immunity to activate extradition. Likewise, he has collateral cases in the Spanish courts linked to his status as an MEP with an arrest warrant for 1-O.
After the official proclamation of those elected in the 2019 European elections, the JEC had to notify the European Parliament of the list of the chosen MEPs. However, it did not include Puigdemont or Comín because they did not swear the Constitution in Madrid. Despite the CJEU ruling at the end of 2019 and the subsequent recognition by the European Parliament of their status as MEPs, the JEC has not notified a new list that includes them.
"The delivery of the credential of proclamation of elected deputy is not appropriate, to the extent that this credential is issued once the elected candidate has taken an oath or promise to comply with the Constitution," maintains the JEC.
The jurisprudence of the CJEU says that: "A person who has been officially proclaimed elected to the European Parliament by the competent authority of the Member State where this election took place acquires, solely by this fact and from that moment, the status of member of Parliament, regardless of any subsequent formalities that it is required to complete, whether under Union law or the national law of the Member State concerned.”
Puigdemont and Comín denounced the position of the JEC to the Constitutional Court, but the latter rejected the appeal for protection because the European Parliament had already recognized them without notification from the JEC.
"As of January 13, 2020, the claim deduced in the application for protection was satisfied outside the constitutional process, since the current petitioners for protection have seen the possibility of exercising all the parliamentary functions and prerogatives that correspond to them as a result recognized. of their status as elected European deputies. The decision of the European Parliament, in addition, recognized their decision retroactively from the first session held in the legislature, which took place on July 2, 2019, "the TC said in November 2022 .
Thus he denied the existence of a violation of fundamental rights because "the effects of the questioned decisions of the Central Electoral Board no longer subsist." A position that he has also subscribed to Strasbourg.
Puigdemont has no more cases currently pending at the ECHR, as confirmed by sources from the court and his defense. In November 2022, the TC also rejected an appeal for protection from the former president at the request of Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, but at the moment the case has not been raised in Strasbourg.
