Julio García-Aquí Europa
The Vice President of Values and Transparency of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, will replace the until now Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, in mediating the negotiations between the PSOE and the PP for the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ. by its acronym in Spanish).
The commissioner had asked the president of the community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, to be allowed to leave the Commission this week instead of April 25, as planned, because he has been invited to participate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Reynders will be on unpaid leave to be a candidate in the elections for Secretary General of the Council of Europe “from today until election day,” Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta announced at the daily press conference. According to the spokesperson, Von der Leyen “has decided to temporarily give the Justice portfolio to Vice President Jourová” during that period of leave. This means that the community vice president will assume “the responsibilities of Commissioner Reynders,” community sources told EFE.
For her part, the community spokesperson for the Interior, Anitta Hipper, specified during the daily press conference that this means that Jourová will assume the mediation work that the commissioner carried out between the PSOE and the PP on the reform of the CGPJ. “Discussions will continue between the parties” and the Commission “remains fully available” to try to help in that area, she added. For his part, Reynders thanked the community vice president for replacing him in the position and assured that these issues will be “in good hands.”
Reynders’ mediation meetings with Bolaños and González Pons began in Brussels on January 31. However, the PSOE and PP still have not resolved the differences regarding the timing of the reform of the judicial election model, which the Government wants to leave until after the urgent renewal but which the PP wants to close in a parallel process. Still, Reynders was optimistic after the third meeting in mid-March, saying there was still a “possibility” of an agreement and pledging to “continue working” to help “stabilize” the situation.
Commissioner Reynders had given until the end of March to reach an agreement between the PSOE and the PP on the renewal of the CGPJ, given the possibility that he would have to leave office at that time if his candidacy to occupy the leadership was successful. of the Council of Europe. On April 5, the commissioner assured that he was “very close” to an agreement on the renewal and reform of the CGPJ and that now all that was missing was the political “signal” to decide “when to do it.”
