Brussels reminds Spanish courts that they must apply the ECJ ruling on amnesty

BrusselsEuropean Commission's notice to the Spanish judiciary. After the Court of Auditors initially refused to apply the Luxembourg ruling upholding the amnesty, the spokesperson for the Community executive Guillaume Mercier recalled this Wednesday, in a statement, that "it is up to the referral courts – the National High Court and the Court of Auditors itself – to apply the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)".

The European Commission has responded in this way to the letter submitted by Carles Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, to the Community executive itself, in which he denounces Spain for non-compliance with the amnesty and warns of the Court of Auditors' maneuver. Thus, the leader of Junts' defense warned this Tuesday in Brussels that the deadline for issuing the amnesty has been suspended "de facto" and that a procedure for allegations has been opened which it not only considers unnecessary, but also claims contravenes the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

For its part, Brussels has confirmed that it has received the letter submitted by Boye and community sources assure that it is a matter of hours before it is officially accepted for processing. The next step is for the European Commission to thoroughly evaluate the request from Puigdemont's defense, as well as that of former councilors Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, and decide whether to open infringement proceedings against Spain; whether to open an informal dialogue with the Spanish government to try to clarify or correct the situation, or to dismiss it. According to the established procedure, Brussels has an indicative deadline – it is not binding – of one year from the registration of the complaint to make a decision and resolve the case.

It is common for Brussels to open infringement proceedings against all member states, but in the vast majority of cases it is for failing to comply with European Union legislation and not because the courts of a country refuse to apply the rulings of European justice. In fact, at present, Spain has 117 open proceedings. In any case, Puigdemont's defense argues before the European Commission that the Spanish state is violating Article 267 of the treaties of the European Union, which specifically refers to preliminary questions submitted to Luxembourg.

In the worst-case scenarios and in the face of repeated non-compliance, the European Commission can bring the Member State in question before the CJEU, which can impose an economic sanction and, if it continues to violate the rule of law of the EU, periodic fines until it complies. The objective of the procedure is to ensure that Member States correctly apply Community legislation, but not to resolve individual cases or offer any compensation to whistleblowers. Therefore, even if the European Commission decided, ultimately, to intervene and bring Spain before the CJEU to apply the European ruling that upholds the amnesty, this would not automatically entail any personal reparation for Puigdemont.

The Court of Auditors' maneuver

The highest court of European justice denied that the use of public funds by the leaders of the 'Procés' affected the financial interests of the European Union and rejected that it caused an impoverishment of the European bloc as a whole or of the budgets of the European institutions, which was the argument the Court of Auditors used to avoid applying the amnesty law. Following the ruling of the CJEU, Elena Hernáez, councilor of accounts of the second department, has opened a period of ten days for the parties to submit allegations in case they find indications that "funds from the EU budget, or administered by the EU or on its behalf, had been used". This is the maneuver that Puigdemont's defense denounces to the European Commission, considering it a completely inappropriate decision and that the only thing the Court of Auditors should do now is to close the proceedings and apply the law agreed between the PSOE, Junts, and Esquerra.

The 'síndics' of 1-O amnestied after two years of judicial blockade

The same day that Brussels responded to Puigdemont's complaint, the amnesty has advanced on other judicial fronts of the Procés. This Wednesday a magistrate from Barcelona has amnestied the five members of the Electoral Syndicate of 1-O: Tània Verge, Marc Marsal, Josep Pagès, Jordi Mas and Marta Alsina, as reported by El Nacional and confirmed by ARA. All had been acquitted, but the Barcelona Court ordered the trial to be repeated, after the Prosecutor's Office appealed the acquittal by court number 11 of Barcelona – issued in April 2021 –, which left the case stalled for two years. The public ministry requested two years and nine months in prison for disobedience and usurpation of public functions, and despite the entry into force of the amnesty law, neither the judge nor the TSJC applied it to them.

The blockade responded to a jurisdictional dispute, as the judge elevated the case to the TSJC considering Tània Verge, then an ERC deputy, to be a privileged person, but the high court refused to assume it. When Verge left her seat, a new judge unblocked the request, with a favorable report from the Prosecutor's Office. One of the lawyers for the syndics, Ramon Setó, explained in statements to ARA that the defense had requested amnesty up to four times without a response from the previous court, and that then it was still necessary to wait three months for the fiscal report. Setó celebrated the decision, while qualifying the process as an "unpleasant and unjustified penance", reports Roger Hernández.