The European Commission (EC) stated this Saturday that it “reflects” on the request that it supervise the negotiations for the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), after the agreement on this reached by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
“The Spanish authorities have asked the Commission to facilitate conversations to advance the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary,” community sources told EFE. “We are currently reflecting on this request,” they added.
They recalled that the EC has expressed its position in its reports on the rule of law: it considers that it is “important” that the issue of the lack of appointments of CGPJ members is addressed as a “priority”.
At the same time, it underlines the need for, “immediately after the renewal”, a process to be initiated to “adapt the appointment system to European standards, in order to ensure that judicial independence is not compromised.”
Sánchez and Feijóo agreed in a meeting on Friday in Congress that the European Commission supervise the negotiations to renew the governing body of the judges, after five years without renewal due to lack of consensus between the parties.
This was a proposal from the PP, which according to this party, was accepted by Sánchez at the meeting, the first they had held since the leader of the socialists was sworn in as head of the Executive last November.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has urged this renewal on several occasions, both from Brussels and on his recent trips to Spain.
The option preferred by Brussels and included in the recommendations of the annual report on the rule of law for Spain, is to proceed first with the renewal and then with the reform of the governing body of the judges, although the EC would not oppose it first. reform and then renewal, if it were the result of an agreement between the main political parties, Reynders said in early December.
