Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont will cooperate with Spanish and Belgian authorities even though he did not appear before Spanish judges earlier today, his Belgian lawyer said.

"The climate is not good, it is better to take some distance," lawyer Paul Bekaert told Reuters.

"If they ask, he will cooperate with Spanish and Belgian justice," Bekaert added.

If the ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont failed to appear in court, the normal procedure would be to issue an arrest warrant, the president of Spain's Supreme Court said today.

"When someone doesn't appear after being cited by a judge to testify, in Spain or any other EU country, normally an arrest warrant is issued," Supreme Court President Carlos Lesmes said.

Puigdemont said on Wednesday he would ignore a court order to return to Spain to answer charges over the region's push for independence and he did not turn up at the High Court hearing today. Puigdemont said he was ready to testify from Belgium, where he had travelled with four other members of his sacked cabinet.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Puigdemont and his government on Friday October 27, hours after the Catalan parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence - a vote largely boycotted by the opposition and declared illegal by Spanish courts.

The other 15 due to testify from 9am are Puigdemont's former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, eight other members of his sacked cabinet and six senior regional lawmakers, including the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell.

Puigdemont and his former team were summoned by the High Court while Forcadell and the other lawmakers were summoned by the Supreme Court.