European Commission sides with Spain in exiles' extradition case at EU court

The European Commission has sided with Spain at the European Court of Justice hearing on Tuesday, discussing the Spanish Supreme Court's requests for clarification over the extradition cases of exiled Catalan leaders.

After Belgium rejected to extradite former minister Lluís Puig in January 2021, Spain's high-profile judge overseeing the Catalan independence leaders' judicial case, Pablo Llarena, requested clarification over whether the decision to deny handing over him was lawful.

The outcome of this procedure is thought to be key in order to know whether former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, along with the five other pro-independence leaders in exile since late 2017, could be handed over to Spain – yet, other circumstances are also set to play a role, including the decision of the same EU court over whether three of the exiled politicians still have immunity as MEPs.

Regardless of the deliberations in Luxembourg, the Belgian and Italian judiciaries will ultimately make the final decisions on the extradition cases.

Opinion ahead of final decision on July 14

Magistrates will issue their decision in some months’ time after the court's advocate general, Richard de la Tour, submits his non-binding opinion on July 14.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the European Commission backed the stance argued by representatives of Spain's judiciary by saying that extradition between EU member states should be possible without reviewing if the accused will have a fair trial in their country, as long as there are not "systemic failures" in its rule of law. 

"There is no systemic failure in Spain's rule of law," said European Commission lawyer Julio Baquero Cruz. 

Yet, the defenses of the exiled independence leaders countered that there are "widespread" problems in Spain's judiciary and, therefore, it was lawful to reject Lluís Puig's extradition. And Carles Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, argued that the court "will side with the jurisprudence and that benefits us."

The whole discussion revolves around the fact that Belgium rejected to hand him over, arguing that he could see his fundamental rights violated in Spain since his trial may not be fair, and mentioning the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reports calling for the release of the leaders who did not leave the country and ended up in jail. Also, Brussels said that Spain's Supreme Court should not be in charge of handling Lluís Puig's case.

Supreme Court clarification requests

In response, Llarena asked the EU court whether Belgium can assess the risk of fundamental rights being violated in another EU member state, and if so, whether the Working Group's papers are a valid argument.

The Supreme Court magistrate also asked Luxembourg regarding "the elements in EU law so that a member state can resolve that in another member state a risk of fundamental rights violation exists." 

Llarena is also asking whether Belgium can have a say on which Spanish court has to try the 2017 independence push leaders. 

EU court: it is 'strange' that Belgium did not request clarification before deciding

Many parties were involved in the hearing that began on Tuesday at 9 am, including Puigdemont and the other exiled leaders' defenses, Belgium's judiciary, Spain's solicitor general, as well as Poland and Romania, who have decided to take sides in the deliberation and have submitted an opinion similar to that of Spain, that is, questioning whether Belgium was allowed to assess potential breaches of fundamental rights if Puig were to be extradited.

Although Italy has an extradition procedure against Puigdemont open, following his one-day arrest on the island of Sardinia, its judiciary has decided to not take sides or submit an opinion.

Spanish far-right party Vox is also involved in the case, since it acted as a private prosecutor in the 2017 indpendence leaders' judicial case. 

Belgium was expected to support its own judiciary's decision to reject Puig's extradition, but instead, it maintained an ambiguous stance. 

The EU court judge in charge of Llarena's request for clarification, Lars Bay Larsen, said he had found it "strange" that Belgium did not ask the Luxembourg magistrates before deciding on the Catalan politician's extradition.