Spain’s Top Court Defies EU Ruling, Refuses to Amnesty Catalan Separatist Spending — 2 Courts Now Battling Brussels Over Billions in Embezzlement Cases
Spain’s top courts are openly defying a European Union ruling, refusing to drop embezzlement charges against Catalan separatist leaders involved in the 2017 independence push, a move that could trigger a constitutional crisis over who controls the region’s finances.
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) this week rejected a request to withdraw its legal challenge to Spain’s amnesty law, insisting it still has “reservations” about applying the amnesty to former ERC officials Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó [234819]. The Catalan court argues that the European Court of Justice’s (CJEU) July ruling—which backed amnesty because the funds did not harm EU financial interests—only addressed accounting liability, not the criminal offense of embezzlement under Spain’s Penal Code [234819].
The TSJC now joins Spain’s Supreme Court, the National Court, and the Court of Auditors in refusing to fully apply the amnesty law [234819]. Even the two courts fully bound by the CJEU’s ruling have not yet applied the amnesty since July, despite requests from separatist leaders and activists accused of terrorism [234819].
The main sticking point is whether embezzlement can be amnestied when it is treated “as a form of corruption” [234819]. Spain’s Supreme Court has already refused to apply amnesty to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on those grounds, with his case now pending before the Constitutional Court this autumn [234819].
The judges resistant to amnesty have not had the final word, but the growing legal rebellion against the CJEU’s authority suggests Spain’s judiciary is prepared to fight Brussels over the financial mechanics of the separatist movement [234819].