The European Commission believes it's the responsibility of Spanish authorities and not the European institutions to determine if its new high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, violated EU rules in a tweet he published which allegedly included confidential information about the European Arrest Warrant issued for former Catalan minister Clara Ponsatí.
In a written response to a question from MEP Diana Riba (ERC), the executive notes that the controversial message was published "in his role as Spanish foreign minister" and not his current role as one of the Commission's vice-presidents.
At the time, a Commission spokesperson said "there are very clear rules in place regarding access to and use of the Schengen information system" and that they hope all member states "respect the letter and spirit of these rules, notably any confidentiality requirements".
The reply was sent by the Commission's Secretariat-General in the name of former president Jean-Claude Juncker and current president Ursula von der Leyen, who took over this weekend.
In her original letter to the pair, the MEP has suggested Borrell's tweet violated European rules, as neither ministers nor other political authorities are meant to have access to or use restricted data from the SIS police cooperation system.