EU parliament caught in Catalan crossfire

BRUSSELS: The European Parliament found itself caught up in Spain´s Catalan crisis Friday as Madrid demanded one separatist leader lose his immunity and another asked the EU body for protection.

A Spanish judge urged the parliament to strip exiled Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who was elected as an MEP last year but is wanted in Spain for sedition, of his immunity to allow an arrest warrant to be served.

And on the same day jailed Catalan pro-independence leader Oriol Junqueras wrote to the assembly´s chief David Sassoli to ask him to back Junqueras´s release that would allow him to take up his own seat.

"It is fundamental that the European Parliament protects the rights of its members and its own independence and work," MEP Diana Riba wrote to Sassoli, on Junqueras´s behalf. The letter urged the parliament not to declare Junqueras´s seat vacant simply because he has begun a 13-year sentence for his part in a banned 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia.

Last month, the European Court of Justice ruled that Puigdemont, living in exile in Belgium, has enjoyed immunity from prosecution since he was elected an MEP in May´s European elections. By extension, this also applies to Junqueras, who was also elected despite being in pre-trial detention. He has since been convicted of sedition and begun his jail term. But yesterday, Spain´s Supreme Court ruled that Junqueras´s conviction "implies the suspension of his status as a European parliamentarian" -- in effect rejecting the ECJ decision.

Then, on Friday, a Supreme Court judge said that Spain would retain its European arrest warrants issued for Puigdemont and another Catalan MEP, Toni Comin. Comin and Puigdemont have received credentials for the European Parliament and plan to attend its plenary session in Strasbourg next week, despite Spain´s extradition demand.