Ciudadanos (C’s) Party MEP Adrián Vázquez Elected to Chair the Legal Affairs Commission Which Will Assess Catalan Leaders Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí’s Immunity

On Monday, Ciudadanos (C’s) party MEP Adrián Vázquez was elected to chair the Legal Affairs Commission (JURI) of the European Parliament which will discuss the response to requests for supplication sent by the Supreme Court to extradite President Puigdemont and exiled leaders Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí.

The three Catalan leaders will soon appear before this commission to discuss whether their immunity as MEPs is lifted by the EU Parliament. This process is expected to take several months and will conclude with a recommendation that will be voted in the plenary.

The Legal Affairs Committee has a total of eight Spanish MEPs, five of them as holders and three more as alternates. The MEPs are the “socialists” Ibán García and Marcos Ros, and the “conservatives” Esteban González Pons, Javier Zarzalejos, and Adrián Vázquez. As substitutes are the unregistered liberal Javier Nart, the “socialist” Nacho Sánchez Amor, and the head of the far-right party Vox in the Eurochamber, Jorge Buxadé.

Vázquez joined the European Parliament in early February after the departure of British MEPs due to Brexit. According to the distribution of chairs between the political groups in the chamber, this presidency corresponded to the Renew Europe parliamentary group – the group that integrates C’s. In his presentation, Vázquez said that as chairman of the commission he wanted to work with “transparency and dialogue.”

The Greens asked for a postponement of the vote to have more time to examine and meet the candidate, but the interim president indicated that the rules did not allow it and the vote took place.

The same commission will decide in the next few days who will be assigned as the spokesperson at the request for the supplicatory issued by the Spanish Supreme Court against the Catalan leaders. Most sources point out that the Bulgarian Conservative and Reformist MEP Angel Dzhambazki will be the chosen one.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to Assess Whether to Investigate Spain for Preventing Jailed Catalan Leaders from Having Access to EU Courts

On Monday, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, said that member states have “the obligation to facilitate all citizens’ access to the courts.” It was his response to MEP Diana Riba’s (ERC) question regarding the pitfalls that the Constitutional Court puts on the jailed Catalan leaders to prevent them from having access to the ECHR.

Sicilianos affirmed that the ECHR will investigate if such a demand is received. He added that there had already been precedents in cases where the prisoner’s access to the ECHR has been hampered. “The court will need to investigate and find out if there is a violation,” he said.

Last week it was revealed that Spain’s Constitutional Court had set a strategy of accepting all the appeals from the Catalan political prisoners to prevent them from having access to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR). This procedure was performed on around fifty appeals for protection filed by Catalan political prisoners against provisions of the Spanish Supreme Court. This kept these matters away from the Strasbourg court during the Independence trial and until the sedition sentence.

If the Constitutional Court had failed to accept all these appeals – only 1% are usually accepted — it would have allowed the defenses to subsequently report a human rights violation before the ECHR that could have been resolved, or at least accepted, before there was a ruling on the case. The Spanish High Court prevented this.

The Spanish Government Lowers Expectations for the Upcoming “Dialogue” with the Catalan Administration

The Spanish government started this week lowering any expectations for the upcoming “dialogue” between the Catalan and Spanish administrations. The Spanish executive said that it will “remain seated” at the table until a solution to the Catalan crisis is found, but emphasized that it will not occur any time soon. “No-one is expecting any results in the short term,” said Spokeswoman for the Spanish government María Jesús Montero on Tuesday. She also ruled out the use of a mediator, which was aimed at facilitating the success of the negotiations.

On Thursday, Catalan President Quim Torra and Spain’s PM Pedro Sánchez continued lowering the expectations. They announced that the negotiating table over the Catalan crisis will kick off this month, but that it will be a long process that will not bring immediate results. Both leaders agreed that the first summit between cabinets in February will be chaired by both heads of government.

Spain’s PM Sánchez insisted that the negotiations will not “yield any results” in the short-term. He also spoke about the need to find a way out of the independence crisis through “solutions within the legal framework and with legal security.”

Sánchez said that the fact that Torra proposed a referendum shows “how far the stances of the both parties are from each other,” thus denying the possibility of such a vote for now. He also rejected the use of a mediator for the negotiations.

President Torra cast doubt on Madrid’s thinking about resolving the conflict: “We don’t know what the Spanish government’s proposal is.”

Torra insisted on the idea of self-determination, but revealed Sánchez’s response: “He answered that their stance remains the same: self-government [of Catalonia] within Spain’s constitution.”

“We are facing a long process, it won’t be easy, it will be complex, this is a path we have to walk,” added Torra.

The agreement on creating negotiations between the Spanish and Catalan governments aimed at solving the Catalan crisis was reached by ERC and PSOE in exchange for facilitating Sánchez’s investiture and the formation of a new government. Since then, the Spanish “Socialist” government has unilaterally broken the agreement several times. Last time was last week when the Spanish government said the dialogue would not start until after the Catalan elections, which are expected to take place between spring and autumn. Finally, Sánchez rectified this saying that the dialogue is due start this month.

Due to the negative attitude of the Spanish administration towards letting the Catalans decide their own future as enshrined in international law, it appears that the dialogue has no hope.

Catalan President Quim Torra Announces Snap Elections Once 2020 Budget Is Passed

On Wednesday, Catalan president Quim Torra announced that he will call a snap election after the 2020 Budget has been approved. The President made it clear that the government had broken down because of the loss of trust among its partners, Esquerra (ERC) and Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), following the decision of the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, to accept the “temporary” withdrawal of his seat as an MP on Monday.

President Torra (JxCat) accused ERC of a “lack of loyalty” and called on the pro-independence camp to “rebuild unity.” He added that before calling a snap election he wanted to approve the Budget and “explore whether Spain’s government has a true desire to enter dialogue and end repression.” He is due to meet Spain’s PM, Pedro Sánchez, in Barcelona on February 6.

ERC issued a statement saying it “respected” the president’s decision to call a snap election. They also said it was important to approve the budget and hold talks with Spain before ending the present term of office.

On Monday, Torra expressed outrage at the parliament’s Speaker, Roger Torrent (ERC), for revoking his MP’s status and thus rendering himself ineligible to vote in the chamber, even though he was still (being) recognized as president.

The President said that we were now facing a new “coup attempt,” and that “repression” had to be “fought” in order to defend the sovereignty of parliament.

“If we don’t face our challenges with solidarity and loyalty within the pro-independence movement, freedom will progressively grow more distant.” Torra urged the pro-independence movement to “re-build” unity through a snap election. “Citizens have to vote for new majorities.”