The third meeting between the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, and the vice-secretary of Institutional Action of the PP, Esteban González Pons, under the auspices of the European Commission to try to unblock the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and “immediately “after” reforming the method of electing judges has ended without agreement, but Brussels maintains pressure on the parties and has summoned both to a new meeting that will take place next week in Madrid. While the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, maintains that “an agreement is possible”, Pons has been as “pessimistic” as on the first day and Bolaños has celebrated the mere fact of speaking as “good news”.
“I do not want to comment on the content, but I want to say that after this meeting in Strasbourg now is the time to organize a meeting at the end of March in Madrid,” announced Reynders, who for the first time has distanced himself from the initial deadline of two months that the European Commission gave to this “structured dialogue” and which expires on March 31, the same date on which the commissioner plans to leave the institution. “I have a long tradition of negotiation both in the country that I know and in the Commission and I believe that a fixed date should never be set,” he declared to the Spanish press in the Alsatian capital. In the event that Brussels agrees to extend its role as arbiter of the negotiations between the Government and the PP and there is no agreement before the end of the month, President Ursula von der Leyen could entrust the task to Vice President Vera Jourova or another commissioner.
The holding of the meeting in Strasbourg a few hours before Congress approves the Amnesty Law did not invite optimism. While Reynders has been convinced that the conversations are helping to move things (“The essential thing is to confirm that we are making progress, that we are moving forward”), González Pons has stressed that there has been “no progress.” “Unfortunately the positions remain frozen. We want a reform of the judicial power model that guarantees the independence of the judges and without that we are not going to take a step forward,” Pons stressed, criticizing the Government for “with one hand, persecute the judges, with the Amnesty Law” and “with another hand” want to agree with the PP on the independence of those same judges.”
Bolaños, for his part, has rejected the PP’s now linking the approval of the criminal pardon for those involved in the Catalan independence process to the talks on the CGPJ. Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s request for the European Commission to mediate this dialogue occurred in December, “a month after the Amnesty Law was registered,” stressed the minister, who is participating in the conversations on behalf of the PSOE. “Compliance with the law and the Constitution is not something that can be conditioned on anything,” Bolaños warned after thanking “the good offices and the time” that Reynders is dedicating to this Spanish issue.
“The fact that we are sitting, talking and negotiating is good news,” stressed the head of Justice, who recalled that “for a year and a half” the PP did not want to sit at the negotiating table. “It is an agreement that is complex but absolutely necessary and essential to recover the normality of Justice at all levels,” emphasized Bolaños, who has advocated maintaining maximum “discretion” and “confidentiality” regarding the content of the meetings held. to date in Brussels and Strasbourg.
