The Venice Commission has endorsed the existence of the Amnesty Law and recognizes the existence of amnesty laws in different European countries, after having collected information in 54 States, according to a report made public this Friday by this entity of the Council of Europe that handles judicial standards.
The Commission affirms that political reconciliation is a legitimate political objective for amnesties. An objective expressly cited not only in the explanatory statement of the bill being processed in the Congress of Deputies, but even in its title (institutional, political and social normalization in Catalonia).
However, the Commission clarifies that it will not intervene in the political debate. In particular, it has not ruled on the appropriateness of the law, nor on its suitability to achieve the declared objective, since these are political decisions that must be made by the Spanish Government and Parliament.
Furthermore, the Venice Commission points out that it is not competent to comment on the constitutionality of the norm, which is a question that must ultimately be decided by the Spanish Constitutional Court and that must be debated by Spanish constitutional experts. And it has not evaluated the compatibility of the text with European Union Law.
The text states that in no case does the amnesty affect the separation of powers, since the rule leaves the amnesty of specific acts in accordance with the law in the hands of the judges.
The Commission establishes a series of criteria to ensure the legality of the amnesty, criteria that, according to socialist sources, the Spanish proposal meets: respect for international law, legal certainty by clearly defining the amnesty acts and the exceptions or a procedure that allows debate and participation.
Likewise, the report makes a series of recommendations, which socialist sources see already fulfilled in the parliamentary process. Define more precisely the material and temporal scope of the application of the amnesty, so that the effects of the law are more predictable, guarantee that a closer causal relationship is established between “the consultations held in Catalonia on November 9, 2014 and October 1, 2017, its preparation or its consequences” and acts of embezzlement and corruption and eliminate the final sentencing criterion for the exclusion of terrorism crimes.
In this sense, socialist sources highlight that the exclusion of terrorism crimes from the amnesty is no longer dependent on the existence of a final sentence as it appeared in the original proposal. The connection between the amnesty and the independence process has been reinforced.
Regarding the investigative commissions created by the Congress of Deputies, the Venice Commission recalls that the main objective of parliamentary investigative commissions is to supervise and control the work of the executive branch to guarantee democratic political accountability and improve transparency and efficiency of government and administration. Judges – he concludes – should not be obliged to report on the merits of their cases to anyone outside the judiciary. It should be noted that the socialist group has already declared that the judges will not appear before the investigative commissions.
The Commission notes that “the amnesty bill has caused a deep and virulent division in the political class, in the institutions, in the judiciary, in the academic world and in the society of Spain. The Commission encourages all authorities Spanish authorities to take the time necessary to engage in meaningful dialogue in a spirit of loyalty
and cooperation between state institutions, as well as between the majority and the opposition, in order to achieve social and political reconciliation, and consider the exploration of restorative justice procedures.”
