Parliamentary prerogatives in the European Union: some characters in search of author

Abstract

The regulation of parliamentary prerogatives in the European Union is the result of the confluence of provisions established by European law and the rules of the Member States. The result is a normative complex in which both levels are obliged to maintain a harmonious relationship that, however, in practice offers points of friction. The understanding of inviolability is within the competence of European law, but the same is not the case with immunity. The Regulatory Protocol introduces an important differentiating bias by establishing various modalities, being decisive to identify the applicable regulations the spatial locus in which the judicial action directed against a deputy is carried out. In the case of the so-called immunity in itinere, on the occasion of the Junqueras Case, the CJEU has formulated a new case law that reinforces the margin of action of Union Law to the detriment of the States in relation to the moment of acquisition of the status of deputy and the activation of the such prerogative.