SPAIN’S AMNESTY LAW TO BE DEBATED IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT NEXT WEDNESDAY 22ND​

By Luis Ayllón, The Diplomat in Spain

The European Parliament will hold next week, predictably on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, a monographic debate on the amnesty law and the rule of law in Spain.

This was agreed today, Friday 17, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, with the support of the European People’s Party (EPP); the Liberals (ER) which includes Ciudadanos and PNV; the group of Europeans and Reformists (ECR) of which Vox is part; and the ultra-right group Identity and Democracy.

The European People’s Party had already announced, at the beginning of this week, its intention to promote the holding of that debate, but there were also on the table other similar proposals from ECR and the Liberals of RE, presented to debate the risk they consider the amnesty law, which yesterday allowed Pedro Sánchez to be invested again as President of the Government, thanks to the support of the Catalan pro-independence groups, benefited by it, poses to the rule of law.

The European Parliament holds a debate every month on topical issues, at the proposal of the groups, and provided that it is supported by other forces. EPP MEP Dolors Monserrat expressed her satisfaction with the decision, stressing that “Sánchez’s pacts against judicial independence violate the principles defended by the EU”, while Adrián Vázquez, MEP for Ciudadanos stated, “The values of the Union are a democratic limit that should not be exceeded, even for those who have no limit to try to continue clinging to power”.

In this way, PP and Ciudadanos manage to take a further step in their eagerness to Europeanize the issue of the amnesty law, although the debate will be strictly political, will not have any legislative or legal repercussions and will not be accompanied by any resolution or vote.

However, both the European Commission and the Council will have to be present at the debate, which means that a member of the Spanish Government, which this semester holds the rotating presidency of the EU, will have to attend. A large presence and participation of Spanish MEPs from all groups is expected.

Meanwhile, the European Commission continues to study the text of the amnesty law presented by the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies. Today, the vice-president of the Community executive body, Margaritis Schinas, said in Madrid: “There are developments that we are following closely, we will assess these developments as always, based on the facts and based on the law”,

Schinas, who was participating in the European Union Law Summit organized by ICAM, defended the separation of powers and indicated, without expressly mentioning the text of the amnesty, that the European Commission always “applies the law” reflected in the European treaties.

Hours earlier, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and former President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, when asked in the Italian Chamber of Deputies by the legislator of the group “We Moderates” Calogero Pisano, about the Spanish amnesty law, expressed his respect for the political debate in Spain, but said that it is “inevitable” that “certain events” have a European resonance, because of their “divisive and controversial concessions” with the Rule of Law.

“In an increasingly interconnected Europe, it is in any case inevitable that certain domestic political events have a resonance in the broader European political debate because they can have an impact on the Union,” said Tajani, who received the Princess of Asturias Award in the midst of the ‘procés’ and the Charles V European Award from the King, in 2018, for his defense of the unity of Spain when he was at the head of the European Parliament.