The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, the body made up of the leaders of all the groups in the chamber, approved this Thursday the holding of a monographic debate on the amnesty law and the rule of law in Spain. The European Parliament holds a plenary session in Strasbourg approximately every month, and each session includes a topical debate. At the beginning of the week, the European People’s Party, at the request of the PP, proposed the situation in our country, and Renew Europe, the liberal group to which Ciudadanos is attached, also joined, as did the conservatives and reformists. The initiative goes ahead with the socialists and the left voting against it.
“The European Parliament has just approved our request to debate in plenary session the erosion of the rule of law in Spain due to the amnesty and Sánchez’s pacts against judicial independence. The principles defended by the EU are being violated,” stated the popular Dolors Montserrat. “The European Parliament has just approved the joint request for debate that we are promoting from the liberal group so that the European Parliament can discuss the situation of the rule of law in Spain during the next plenary session. The values of the Union are a democratic limit that should not be exceed, even for those who have no limit to trying to continue clinging to power,” agreed Adrián Vázquez, the leader of Ciudadanos in Brussels.
The debate will be strictly political, has no legislative or legal repercussions and is not accompanied by any resolution or vote. It will take place in the plenary session, foreseeably Tuesday or Wednesday, and a large majority of Spanish deputies from all groups will also participate: PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos, Unidas Podemos, Vox and the nationalists, as happens every time something happens. similar.
PP and Ciudadanos want to Europeanize the amnesty law and take the issue of the rule of law to every corner. They believe, like the independentistas since 2017, that the intervention of the EU and all its institutions is necessary, essential and inevitable, to stop what they consider an outrage. The European Parliament does not have specific powers on the matter, but it is the political institution par excellence, with more than 700 deputies from across the continent and the media that follow current events very closely.
While the European Commission, which is the guardian of the Treaties, legally examines the law presented by the PSOE, after the agreement with Junts, the Spanish opposition wants to apply pressure, as much as possible. The ultimate objective, or aspiration, is for the European Commission to end up speaking out against the text of the amnesty, despite the fact that, as high-ranking sources in the house have been explaining for weeks, its powers are also limited. Amnesties, per se, are national issues, and there have been many and of many types in recent years in various countries.