Eduardo González
The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, admitted yesterday in Brussels that the European Commission has “questions” about the amnesty law agreed by the PSOE and Junts, but assured that the Government answers them “all with total transparency, with total normality”.
“We are maintaining a continuous, fluid, transparent dialogue to clarify any aspect,” said Bolaños at the joint press conference with the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, at the end of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council, held in Brussels. “That dialogue takes place with questions, with answers to all the questions that are asked, with transparency, with total normality, and that is why we have a common position, the Commission and the Spanish government, and we are totally aligned,” he added.
Last Thursday, Bolaños went to Brussels to hold working meetings with Reynders and with the Vice President for Values and Transparency of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, with whom he addressed the delay in the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the amnesty law itself.
That same day, the minister assured the press that in the European Union there is “zero concern” for the health of the rule of law in Spain and for the amnesty law, because “they know that it is absolutely in accordance with the Constitution and the values of the EU”. However, the spokesman for Justice of the European Commission, Christian Wigand, assured the following day that the two commissioners had informed the minister that, “of course”, they had “questions” pending on this matter and, therefore, “the Commission has not yet said that the amnesty law does not cause it any concern”.
“I maintain everything I said and, in fact, here today what I am saying is that we have a shared position, that we have a common position, the Commission and the Government of Spain, and that we are in a process of total normality where there is a dialogue, open, transparent, fluid, loyal,” Bolaños assured yesterday at the press conference. “This dialogue will continue, without any doubt, and any question that the Commission asks us, any clarification, we will do it as we are doing it”, he insisted.
For his part, Reynders stated at the same press conference that the Commission’s position has not changed “since the first letter on the amnesty law” and recalled that Brussels had asked for a draft of the text and, once in its hands, sent its questions to the Spanish government. “We are happy to have a good dialogue on the text,” said the commissioner, who again insisted that it is “an internal process in Spain” and that we will have to wait to see the resolution of the Spanish Parliament.
According to Reynders, the Commission will evaluate everything “only at the end of the process” and, in the meantime, will maintain the dialogue with the Government on the amnesty law. It is “a shared procedure” and “it is not the first time” that Brussels analyzes a bill before its approval, he added. Both the minister and the commissioner avoided any specification on the exact meaning of the “questions” formulated by the Commission to the Spanish Government and insisted, again and again, that there is “a process of dialogue” characterized by its “transparency and normality” and that the two parties maintain a “common position”.
Regarding the rectification of Brussels to Bolaños, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared yesterday to the SER radio station: “I do not think they went out to correct, but if we talk about the position of the European Commission, it is their mission to see if it is in accordance with the law”. “I can assure you that the Commission does not see me as the (Viktor) Orban of the south. This is a pro-European government,” he added.
