The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, stated this Friday that the PSOE and the PP are “very close” to an agreement on the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), in whose negotiations he is mediating, and that now only The political “signal” is missing to decide “when to do it.”
“We are really very, very close to an agreement on the renewal of the Council in matters of justice, but also on a series of necessary reforms in the Spanish judicial system. Now it is a question of political will to know when we want to do it,” said Reynders. to a small group of media, including EFE.
In this sense, he stated that “as soon as the political signal arrives, Brussels will return to “the path of a three-way discussion.” For this path to come to fruition, Reynders has estimated that “it is also useful for the two political parties to talk to each other” and has expressed his hope that “this is what is done in Madrid.”
The commissioner insisted that “it is necessary for the parties to agree so that progress can be made” and recalled that the basis of the structured dialogue are the annual recommendations on the rule of law that for two years have urged Spain to renew on a regular basis. “priority” the CGPJ and to undertake “immediately afterwards” the reform of the system of election of members.
Although both PSOE and PP have expressed willingness and will to resolve the impasse in which the governing body of the judges finds itself, whose mandate expired more than five years ago, they continue to clash over the times since while the socialists only see urgency in renewal – and they talk about leaving the reform of the model for “later” -, for the popular ones it is essential that both issues go hand in hand.
Reynders has until April 25 to try to unblock the negotiation after the delay in the date of his leave to face the campaign for the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe. At first, Reynders was scheduled to leave his position on March 31, but following a request made to the president of the European Commission, Úrsula Von der Leyen, that date was delayed until April 25.
Reynders had given himself a period of two months, which expired at the end of March, to achieve a rapprochement of positions between socialists and popular ones. To complete the process, he planned to travel to Madrid and meet with both parties on March 27, but just one day before, the PP said it had not scheduled that meeting.
The meeting was included in the official forecasts of the European Commission and the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, assured that he was available to the European Commissioner to address this meeting, which would have been the fourth of those held and the first to be carried out in Spain.
Both Bolaños and the deputy secretary of Institutional Action of the PP, Esteban González Pons, who negotiate on behalf of the socialists and popular, respectively, have received the message from the commissioner who has assured both parties that “he remains available to continue the dialogue”, although it is aware that the tight electoral calendar in Spain makes it difficult to reach agreements between the two antagonists.
At the moment, there is no new date for a new meeting which, almost certainly, could not take place before April 21, the date of the Basque elections. That possible meeting is, in any case, up in the air since May 12 is the appointment with the polls in Catalonia.
The involvement of Brussels in the negotiations for the renewal of the Council, as well as the reform of the method of electing magistrates, was practically the only thing that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, agreed on. the meeting that both leaders held on the eve of the Christmas holidays about the situation of the governing body of the judges. The head of the opposition raised it and Moncloa immediately signed it.
