Key day for the amnesty: the Advocate General of the CJEU gives his opinion on the law

BrusselsKey statement for the application of the amnesty lawThe Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Dean Spielmann, will issue an opinion this Thursday between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. on the measure agreed upon between the Spanish government and the pro-independence parties. He will assess whether it can be applied in cases related to the expenses of the Catalan independence process and whether the rule is contrary to the values ​​and legislation of the Catalan independence movement. Some thirty pro-independence leaders are implicated in the cases related to the expenses of the process, including Carles Puigdemont of Junts per Catalunya and Oriol Junqueras of Esquerra Republicana. So far, the Court of Auditors and the National Court, the judicial bodies that referred the matter to Luxembourg, refuse to apply the measure, considering it unconstitutional and asserting that its application would constitute "ideological" discrimination. The Supreme Court did not appeal to Luxembourg (it directly states that amnesty is not applicable to embezzlement cases), but its ruling will also influence its position, since its argument for not applying the law to Puigdemont or other leaders of the Catalan independence movement is that embezzlement is not subject to amnesty. Thus, in response to questions from these two Spanish courts, Spielmann will have to specifically assess whether applying amnesty in these cases could go against the financial interests of the European Union. Although it does not directly address embezzlement, it could be key for the leaders convicted of that crime. Furthermore, the Spanish justice system is also questioning whether the twelve defendants in Operation Judas against the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDRs), who face sentences of between eight and eleven years in prison, can be granted amnesty, taking into account European Union anti-terrorism regulations.

It's important to remember that the opinion won't be final, but it will have a significant influence on the final judgment. It can very likely determine the verdict of the highest court in European justice: in about 80% of cases, the judge's position coincides with that previously indicated by the Advocate General. The final judgment is usually made public a few months after the Advocate General's opinion.

Brussels' position

At the hearing held last summer in Luxembourg, the European Commission's lawyer, Spaniard Carlos Urraca, was very forceful in his opposition to the measure agreed upon by Sánchez and the main pro-independence parties. He even adopted some of the political arguments of the Spanish right, asserting that the Spanish Prime Minister had perpetrated a "self-rigged" agreement. "It is not compatible with EU values," declared the legal representative of the European Commission, who also criticized the fact that "an amnesty is being granted in exchange for support for a government."

Despite these assertions, the Commission's legal advisor also presented arguments that could play into the hands of the Catalan separatists, stating that the expenses related to the independence process did not affect the EU's financial interests, even though the Court of Auditors uses this as an excuse for not applying the amnesty. "It does not show a sufficiently direct link between the illegalities in question and the EU's own resources," said the European Commission's legal advisor.