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The European Parliament has voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and two other separatists, Euronews reports.

It paves the way for further legal moves by Spain, where they face charges relating to the illegal independence referendum in 2017, to seek their extradition from Belgium.

Madrid is expected to move to reactivate a European Arrest Warrant (EAS) to bring them back to the country for trial. Puigdemont stands accused of sedition and misuse of public funds.

Similar charges have been filed against the two other separatists, former Catalan health minister Antoni Comín and ex-education minister Clara Ponsatí.

The extradition will have to be decided first by the Belgian justice system. Spain has already referred the matter to the European Court of Justice.

The result was announced on Tuesday morning following a secret ballot held by MEPS on Monday evening. MEPS adopted a waiver to strip the politicians of their special protection.

In Puigdemont's case, MEPs voted by 400 in favour, to 248 against with 45 abstentions, to lift his immunity from prosecution. For Comín and Ponsatí there were 404 votes in favour of the waiver, 247 against, and 42 abstentions.

"We’re going to fight this battle until the last minute, whether it’s in the European Parliament or in the [European] Court of Luxembourg if we have to go there," Puigdemont told Euronews last month, after the JURI committee's vote.

The charges Puigdemont faces in Spain for sedition and misuse of public funds relate to the 2017 referendum in Catalonia and unilateral declaration of independence, which he pronounced as the then-leader of the region.

In Spain, nine Catalan pro-separatist leaders and activists have already been found guilty of sedition and given prison sentences of between 9 and 13 years. Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí were supposed to be part of that same trial, but their exile made it impossible.