Brussels, 10 June. (askanews) – How and when will Ilaria Salis, under house arrest in Hungary, be able to benefit from parliamentary immunity after her election yesterday to the European Parliament on the lists of the Green-Left Alliance? Journalists asked the spokespersons of the European Parliament this during this morning’s briefing in Brussels, in which a new updated projection of the Assembly seats after the European elections was published.
“We do not comment on individual cases. The rules of European elections are mainly defined by national electoral laws,” responded Parliament’s deputy chief spokesperson, Delphine Colard, inviting journalists to ask the Italian authorities the question.
“Under the rules in force, an elected MEP candidate benefits from the immunities provided for in Article 9.2 of the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities” of the European Parliament, but we do not comment on individual cases,” Colard explained.
To a journalist who asked whether the release of Ilaria Salis does not depend rather on the Hungarian authorities, given that, although elected in Italy, she is under house arrest in Hungary because she is accused of having committed a crime in that country, the spokeswoman replied: “This makes part of the relations between the two Member States”.
The Protocol mentioned by Delphine Colard, in point 9.2, provides, among other things, that “no restrictions of an administrative or other nature shall be made to the freedom of movement of members of the European Parliament” in carrying out their functions. It also provides that “for the duration of the sessions of the European Parliament, its members benefit: on national territory, from the immunities recognized to members of the Parliament of their country; in the territory of any other Member State, exemption from any detention order and any judicial proceedings. Immunity also covers them when they travel to or return to the European Parliament’s meeting place.” Immunity, however, “cannot be invoked in the case of a flagrant crime”. Finally, the European Parliament has the right to waive the immunity of one of its members.
A little later, the issue was also addressed in a press briefing, again at the European Parliament in Brussels, by the spokesperson of the Left group, David Lundy. “Ilaria Salis – said the spokesperson – she will find a very comfortable home in our group and a lot of support from its members”.
“We will contact you in the next few days. And if there are difficulties” in applying parliamentary immunity in his cases, “we will put pressure on the European Parliament to ensure that it can exercise its democratic mandate from the beginning” of the new legislature, concluded Lundy.
