EU court confirms lifting of Catalan MEPs' immunity

The Court of Justice of the EU on Wednesday dismissed a challenge brought by three Catalan MEPs over the European Parliament stripping them of their immunity at Spain's request.

The court said it "rejects all the pleas" made by the three -- Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati -- effectively confirming the parliament's 2021 decision.

Madrid had asked for their immunity as EU lawmakers to be lifted so it could pursue legal action against the trio over a banned Catalan referendum and failed independence bid that sparked Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Following Wednesday's ruling, Puigdemont -- the Catalan leader at the time of the referendum who fled into exile to avoid prosecution -- immediately vowed to appeal.

Conmin and Ponsati also fled abroad with Puigdemont, with all three ending up in self-exile in Belgium. Puigdemont and Comin were elected to the European Parliament in May 2019, and Ponsati in February 2020.

In March 2021, the European Parliament decided to waive their immunity, prompting all three to ask the EU's General Court -- one of the tribunals making up the bloc's Court of Justice (CJEU) -- to annul the decision.

But the Luxembourg-based court on Wednesday rejected their challenge, notably their argument that the European Parliament had violated its own principle of impartiality.

"The General Court rejects all the pleas put forward by the three members, in particular their arguments that the parliament erred in concluding that the legal proceedings... were not brought with the intention of damaging the members' activities," it said.

It also determined that "the parliament is not required to examine the legality of the Spanish judicial acts" as that issue comes "exclusively" under the competence of Spanish authorities.

The court dismissed claims about the impartiality of the MEP heading the parliament's legal affairs committee which handles immunity cases.

According to the court, the political alignment of the MEP, who belongs to the right-wing eurosceptic ECR group, was "irrelevant".

The Spanish government said it was "very satisfied" with the ruling, with Justice Minister Pilar Llop telling reporters it was "an undeniable endorsement of Spanish institutions and Spanish justice and also of the European Parliament".

"Let's be done with all this hot air: citizen Puigdemont must be brought to justice," she said.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Puigdemont said the ruling "wasn't what we were expecting" but vowed to challenge the decision "as soon as possible" via an appeal to the CJEU.

"We will obviously lodge an appeal as soon as possible and one which is as ambitious as possible... because the ruling has opened some loopholes on which to build an appeal," the 60-year-old said, indicating the court would then have six months to respond.

Spain has been pushing for Puigdemont's extradition since 2017 on grounds of sedition, but the Belgian judiciary has never approved the request on grounds it was unable to equate the charges with crimes in Belgium.

Earlier this year, Spain's Supreme Court dropped the sedition charges against Puigdemont and the other two following a controversial reform of the criminal code, but filed fresh charges against them of misuse of public funds and disobedience.

Puigdemont now potentially faces a shorter prison term if convicted than he would have been before the sedition charge was dropped.

The legal reform -- which was pushed through by Spain's left-wing government in a move seen by analysts as courting the support of Catalan separatists ahead of this year's general election -- was fiercely opposed by the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP).

All polls suggest the PP is on track to win the upcoming snap election which will take place on July 23.