The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) is once again raising eyebrows in Spain, considering that dismissals in the Spanish state are too cheap. This body falls under the Council of Europe and is responsible for ensuring that Member States comply with the European Social Charter. In an opinion published this Friday, the ECSR has once again made it clear that compensation paid after a worker loses their job is neither sufficient to compensate for the harm suffered nor to deter the employer from firing them.

Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly has been very close to approving a new resolution criticising Spain for "numerous criminal cases" over the organisation of the October 1, 2017 Catalan Independence Referendum and for the European arrest warrants against exiles. The text compared the Spanish state to Turkey and aspired to answer the question: "Should politicians be tried for statements made in the exercise of their mandate?" And the answer posed by rapporteur Boriss Cilevics, a Latvian Socialist MP, consisted of congratulating the Spanish government for the pardons, criticising it for the fact that they can now be reversed and recommending, once again, a reform of the crimes of sedition and rebellion. But the Spanish government will never receive a document that will force it to do all these things because PSOE and PP have joined forces to prevent its approval. By seducing a few more representatives at the last minute, PP and PSOE have managed to have any reference to Spain removed, and the country's name no longer appears next to Turkey's.

It is not the first time that the Council of Europe - a European regional body in defense of human rights - denounces police abuse in the State, but in the report published on Tuesday the organisation goes further and warns that these are not isolated cases but that the mistreatment has become an all too frequent practice. "It is a matter of great concern", the document states. After a visit to different prisons - mostly in Madrid, Valencia and Seville - by members of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and interviewing dozens of prisoners in September 2020, the Council of Europe concludes that "there continues to be a pattern of physical abuse inflicted by prison officers as a disproportionate and punitive reaction" to the behaviour of some prisoners, and calls on Pedro Sánchez's government to take steps to curb police violence.

The Council of Europe has once again launched harsh criticism against Spain over its system to elect the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and warns of its "politicisation" in the eyes of public opinion. "It is a critical issue," warns the latest report published on Thursday by European anti-corruption body GRECO, which assesses whether States comply with adequate anti-corruption measures in both the political and judicial field

Should politicians be prosecuted for statements they have made in the exercise of their mandate? This is the title of the report published this Monday by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe by 70 votes in favor, 28 against and 12 abstentions. It includes in the same 28 pages the case of the persecution of politicians of the Kurdish minority in Turkey and "the prosecution of several Catalan politicians finally sentenced to long prison sentences for sedition and other crimes, among other things for statements made in the exercise of their political mandates in support of an unconstitutional referendum on the independence of Catalonia". The simple fact that the Catalan process is framed within this report is already a victory for the narrative of independence abroad, but the text goes even further and demands that the prisoners be pardoned or released, Euro-orders cancelled, charges against low-ranking officials over the referendum withdrawn and prisoners not to be required to disavow their political convictions to obtain more favourable prison regimes.

Three Spanish judges' associations have made their rejection of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe report that calls for the release of political prisoners public this Friday. The report was rejected because it calls into question "the objectivity" of the Spanish justice system and, specifically, the trial and sentencing of the Independence bid. The Professional Association of the Magistracy, the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association and the Independent Judicial Forum go a little further and make an explicit request to the Spanish government: they ask it to "deploy the diplomatic instruments at its disposal" to prevent the approval of this report in the assembly of the Council of Europe, because they consider it "unfair and dishonourable to one of the powers of the State".

The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe, an international body linked to the European Court of Human Rights that monitors compliance with human rights and democracy, has called for the pardon or release of Catalan political prisoners and the withdrawal of extradition proceedings against exiles. This is stated in the draft report prepared by the Latvian socialist deputy Boriss Cilevics, who has travelled to Madrid and Barcelona to prepare the report titled Should politicians be prosecuted for statements made in the exercise of their mandate? and which analyses the cases of Spain and Turkey.