Parliamentary immunity in the European Union and the requirement of objective impartiality in waiver proceedings: commentary on the cjeu judgment of 5 february 2026, Case C-572/23 P, Puigdemont i Casamajó and others v European Parliament

Abstract

The judgment of the Court of Justice of 5 February 2026 in Case C-572/23 P, Puigdemont i Casamajó and Others v European Parliament, annulled both the judgment of the General Court of 5 July 2023 and the three decisions of the European Parliament of 9 March 2021 lifting the parliamentary immunity of MEPs Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó, Antoni Comín i Oliveres and Clara Ponsatí Obiols. The ruling does not resolve the case on the merits of the waiver requests or the fumus persecutionis issue, but grounds the annulment in a procedural defect: the designation of the rapporteur responsible for handling the waiver requests in the Committee on Legal Affairs was contrary to the requirement of objective impartiality derived from Article 41(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The judgment thus shifts the focus of the debate away from the political characterisation of the underlying conflict and towards the legal conditions for the adoption of parliamentary decisions, establishing that the procedure for waiving parliamentary immunity must satisfy the general guarantees of good administration, including the objective appearance of neutrality on the part of those involved in its preparation.