Under his mandate, Oriol Junqueras, Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí were appointed MEPs. And also under his mandate, the ERC leader had to resign. "I have received criticism for my management from both pro-independence and anti-independence players," said David Maria Sassoli (Florence, 1956) in an interview with this newspaper on Europe Day. The president of the European Parliament who has possibly experienced the Catalan conflict most closely died early this morning, according to his spokesman Roberto Cuillo, after weeks in hospital due to a complication in his immune system. He had already had health problems at the end of 2021 that kept him away from parliamentary activity. He is the first top EU official to die in office.

MEPs passed a resolution on Wednesday calling for a "thorough investigation" into the relationship between Catalan independence leaders and the Russian government. It is a text introduced by two Socialist MEPs in a report on the future of political relations between the European Union and Russia which will be voted on on Thursday. The amendment considers that "recent findings of close and regular contacts between Russian officials, including members of the security service, and representatives of a group of Catalan secessionists in Spain require a thorough investigation".

This Thursday, Junts MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí have celebrated the General Court of the European Union's (GCEU) decision to restore provisionally their parliamentary immunity while awaiting a ruling on the appeal the three filed against the European Parliament for having agreed to lift their immunity at the Spanish Supreme Court's behest. "We have climbed a step," said the former Catalan president, who explained that it is a "very important" step because it has "no precedent". The three MEPs from Junts consider that defending their rights as MEPs does not go against the European Parliament, but on the contrary, it "strengthens" it, and therefore they hope that it will not oppose the ruling.

The negotiations begin. The European Parliament on Wednesday set out its negotiating position on what the European digital vaccination certificate proposed by the European Commission a few weeks ago should look like and what it should be used for. MEPs are calling for the certificate to avoid quarantine and for travel PCRs to be free of charge, as well as being very cautious about data privacy. But both the European Commission and the EU governments represented in the Council qualify these demands and, therefore, will negotiate three-way from now with the aim of reaching an agreement in the coming weeks so that the certificate can come into force in June. Although the position of MEPs is clear, the result of the vote will not be known until Thursday.

It is back to the courts for Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí after their parliamentary immunity was withdrawn this morning. The result of the European Parliament plenary vote on Monday is the definitive confirmation which comes as no surprise. By 400 votes in favour, 248 against and 45 abstentions, in the case of Puigdemont, and by 404 votes in favour, 247 against and 42 abstentions in the case of Comín and Ponsatí, the European Parliament has decided to grant the suspension of immunity requested by the Spanish Supreme Court so that the judicial process can continue in Belgium and Scotland for their extraditions

The largest political group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, has finally parted ways with the party of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The relationship has been deteriorating for years since Orbán's authoritarian drift and a flirtation with Euroscepticism that some in this family have long seen as unsustainable. Two years ago, just before the European elections, the conservatives suspended the Fidesz of voice and vote and, since then, the debate on the final expulsion had remained latent, but the fear of some to stoke the fire of the most anti-European far-right and further weaken the hegemony of the populars in Europe kept them hanging by a thread that has just broken this Wednesday, when the popular group of the European Parliament has forced the departure of Orbán with a change of its internal rules that facilitated the expulsion. Orbán decided to leave before he could be expelled.

"The decision was predictable, but that does not make it any less regrettable". This is how the former president Carles Puigdemont reacted to Tuesday's vote in the Legal Affairs Committee in favor of withdrawing his, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí's parliamentary immunity. The Junts MEP criticised the politicisation of the entire processing of the request after parliamentarians of the PP, Cs and Vox celebrated the result of the vote and the irregularities that, according to Puigdemont, there have been throughout the process. Junts MEPs say they will continue "fighting" until the end, referring to the vote in the plenary in two weeks that will have to confirm the decision, but acknowledge that "the most likely" is that the plenary will end up withdrawing their immunity. They have already warned that they will appeal against the final decision and the irregularities in the process before the European justice system: "The battle continues outside the European Parliament"

Parliament's legal affairs committee voted on Tuesday to waive Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí's immunity, as proposed by Bulgarian ultra-conservative rapporteur Angel Dzhambazki. His report received 15 votes in favour, 8 against and 2 abstentions. This vote is the first step towards accepting the Spanish Supreme Court's request, which requires the three MEPs to lose their immunity from prosecution before extradition can be requested. But it is not the final step, which will have to be taken by all 705 MEPs in a vote scheduled for the week starting March 8. After that, the Belgian and Scottish courts will be able to continue to process the suspended warrants pending the request.

The European Parliament's rapporteur will seek to withdraw pro-independence JxCat MEPs' parliamentary immunity so that the legal process of their extradition can continue, reports Abc newspaper and parliamentary sources have been confirmed to ARA. Therefore, the report to be presented next week in the Legal Affairs Committee (Jure) by the ultraconservative Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki will request parliamentary immunity is withdrawn for Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí