The group of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament has requested that a debate on the risk to the rule of law in Spain as a consequence of the amnesty law agreed by the PSOE be included in the agenda of next week’s plenary session. with Junts and ERC to ensure the investiture of the socialist candidate for the presidency of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
The Popular Party wants to “make it clear that the rule of law is not negotiable in the European Union and cannot simply be sacrificed to obtain the votes necessary to form a government majority,” as indicated by the conservative party in a statement.
In a joint statement, the leader of the EPP, the German Manfred Weber, and the head of the PP delegation in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, have warned that the provisions of the agreement for the amnesty of those involved in the independence challenge represent a “risks violating the separation of powers and undermines judicial independence.”
The agenda for the next plenary session will be closed this Thursday at the meeting of the Conference of Presidents (CoP) that brings together the leaders of all parliamentary groups, but parliamentary sources consulted by Europa Press assume that it will have the necessary support.
Not in vain, both Ciudadanos (in the group of European liberals) and Vox (in that of the Conservatives and Reformists, ECR) have expressed these days their desire for the matter to be taken to the European Parliament, which would facilitate the sufficient support for the debate to be scheduled in plenary from November 20 to 23.
To defend the need to raise the issue to the European level, Weber has defended that, “when all the professional associations of the judiciary and representatives of companies and unions sound the alarm, it must be taken very seriously.”
The German conservative compares the situation in Spain with that of Poland and demands that the European Commission “immediately clarify” that references to ‘lawfare’, a term that presupposes the judicialization of politics, are “absolutely unacceptable.”
In this sense, Weber and Montserrat affirm that the mention of lawfare means “opening the door to interference in the judiciary by the legislative power”, which represents a “serious threat” to judicial independence in Spain.
