The amnesty agreed for the investiture and its effects on the misappropriation of public funds is being increasingly evaluated in different European instances. The former Minister of Justice in the Zapatero Government and current Socialist MEP, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, has formally requested the text of the amnesty law proposal for his examination in the European Parliament.
López Aguilar has addressed a letter, to which EL MUNDO has had access, to the president of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol, with a copy to the current permanent representative of the State in Brussels, Marcos Alonso, for the information of the Government.
López Aguilar makes this request, according to the letter, “on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament at the request of the coordinators of the different European parliamentary groups.” They want “clarifications on the scope of the amnesty that would cover a period of more than 10 years and that would benefit important people involved in the Catalan independence movement.”
The former socialist minister declares himself aware that the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has taken a similar step and that Minister Félix Bolaños has referred to the legislative process and has shown a willingness to meet with Reynders. In view of this, his parliamentary committee also wants a copy of the bill registered in Congress by the PSOE.
López Aguilar says goodbye, indicating to Armengol that he is addressing this request to him because the regulated procedure of the European Parliament obliges him to do so. “Once the coordinators of the political groups agree on a request, it is the president’s duty to process it as the majority of them agree,” he explains. And since the MEPs’ request is “urgent” he calls on Armengol to also proceed quickly.
Among the members of this parliamentary commission are Spaniards such as the PP MEP, Javier Zarzalejos, the Vox MEP, Jorge Buxadé and the Ciudadanos MEP, Maite Pagaza. All of them have been active in this case, but the jeopardization of the rule of law in Spain and the pardoning of crimes of embezzlement of public funds in a country that receives so many European funds have spread concern among MEPs, not only Spanish ones. “There is growing awareness that there is a problem with the rule of law in Spain and with the prosecution of embezzlement and it is clear that the amnesty is not going to be an issue that remains off the radar of the European Union,” Zarzalejos assures this diary. This MEP confirms that there has been agreement in the Commission so that López Aguilar is forced to process the petition, which may generate appearances by members of the Spanish Government and a critical resolution. “This is going to have a long way to go,” he says.
Also members of this commission are the Portuguese Paulo Rangel, who participated last Saturday in a demonstration in Madrid, and the Polish socialist Andrzej Halicki. It so happens that Carles Puigdemont himself, who benefits from the amnesty, is a substitute member of this European Parliament commission, as is until now the new minister for the Sumar quota, Sira Rego.
López Aguilar has publicly declared himself in favor of his party negotiating the amnesty, but his result will have to be examined in this European parliamentary body. The Canarian socialist says goodbye, however, to his Balearic co-religionist with “a very cordial hug” in Spanish.