A Spanish Court of Audit ruling has cleared 35 former Catalan officials and civil servants of accounting liability over spending linked to the region’s 2017 independence referendum and international campaigning. The decision follows a European Union court judgment delivered in Luxembourg on 16 July 2026, which clarified when Spain’s amnesty law could apply to the expenditure.
Those benefiting include former Catalan presidents Carles Puigdemont and Artur Mas, as well as former vice-president Oriol Junqueras. The Spanish court’s decision also lifts precautionary measures and cancels bail guarantees totalling €4,283,438.23, according to the supplied report.
The proceedings examined public spending connected to organising the October 2017 referendum, including an outlay of €883,695 under investigation, alongside expenditure on the Catalan regional government’s foreign activities between 2011 and 2017. That second category included international lobbying through organisations such as Diplocat.
The Court of Audit had previously suspended the case while awaiting guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), based in Luxembourg. The European court upheld the application of Spain’s amnesty law to the relevant expenditure, subject to compliance with EU law and protection of the Union’s financial interests.
Following that judgment, the Spanish proceedings examined whether European Union funds had financed the spending. The audit court concluded that there was no evidence that the expenditure under scrutiny had been financed with EU funds. On that basis, it found that the alleged accounting liabilities fell within the amnesty and should be extinguished.
The decision marks a concrete application of the Luxembourg court’s interpretation of the limits governing Spain’s amnesty legislation. The European judgment did not establish that all conduct connected with the Catalan independence drive was covered unconditionally; its application depended on the relevant legal requirements, including protection of the EU budget.
The ruling may still be challenged before the Court of Audit’s appellate chamber. The report also stresses that the accounting proceedings are separate from the criminal dispute over whether the amnesty can cover embezzlement allegations connected with the independence bid. That issue remains before Spain’s Supreme Court.
For Luxembourg, the direct connection is the role of the CJEU in interpreting EU law: its judgment supplied the legal framework that the Spanish audit court then applied when deciding whether the investigated spending liabilities could be extinguished.
