Julio García-Aquí Europa
The second meeting of the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, and the Deputy Secretary of Institutional Action of the PP, Esteban González Pons, with the mediation of the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, concluded yesterday in Brussels without agreement to discuss to unblock the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
Upon leaving the European Commission headquarters, after just over an hour of meeting, González Pons stated that “we are moving forward very slowly, too slowly, and we believe that the main problem is not resolved: we believe that the CGPJ should be renewed at the same time.” while we are looking for a new model that guarantees the independence of our courts, the division of powers and the rule of law in Spain.
Reynders, Bolaños and González Pons will meet again in Brussels in the first half of March, although the exact date has not yet been determined. The objective of this third meeting will be to continue moving towards a solution to the renewal of the CGPJ for which Reynders has given until the end of March. The parties have already exhausted half of the calendar planned by the commissioner, who is expected to leave office on those dates if his candidacy to occupy the leadership of the Council of Europe, a body outside the EU, is successful.
Upon accepting mediation, after the first doubts due to the unprecedented format and consulting with the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Reynders proposed a “structured dialogue” with the aim of unblocking the renewal of the governing body of judges and also address a reform of the system for appointing members to align with European standards that defend an election among peers.
In this way, the commissioner complies with the recommendations that Brussels has included for two years in its annual report on the rule of law in EU countries and which, in the case of Spain, calls for “proceeding as a priority” to the renewal of the CGPJ “and begin, immediately afterwards”, the “process” for the reform.
The times to comply with the process are already one of the main points of friction between the Government, which maintains that “the urgent thing” is to renew the CGPJ and that once this phase is over, it will be possible to “talk about other matters”, in the words of Bolaños days before the first meeting with Reynders, and the Popular Party, for whom it is imperative that both the renewal and the reform of the model go hand in hand.
Since the first meeting on January 31, the Commission has also made it clear that these contacts are only aimed at addressing the issue of the CGPJ and not other controversial issues facing the PP and the PSOE, such as the Amnesty Law.
Reynders has said on several occasions that he follows the process in Spain “very closely” because the law should not clash with Community law, with regard to the protection of community funds or the directive on terrorism, for example; but that its evaluation will not be completed until the parliamentary procedure is completed and the norm takes its final form.
