The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, has today agreed to the request of the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, to take a leave without pay to be able to defend his candidacy for secretary general of the Council of Europe, but the temporary leave of the Belgian political will not begin immediately, as was thought, but on April 25, according to a statement published today by the institution. Reynders, therefore, will continue in office for a month longer than expected. And his offer to contribute to the dialogue between the PP and the PSOE on the European recommendations regarding the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), for which a period of two months was initially set, is still on the table, as La has learned. Vanguard. To date, three meetings have been held and nothing has emerged about their content. But Brussels is willing to continue for a few more weeks.
Reynders had announced last week that this Wednesday he would travel to Madrid to hold a new meeting with representatives of both parties, but the meeting disappeared from his public agenda on Monday. Both the PSOE and the European Commission have insisted that the cancellation was not at their request, and everything indicates that the one who needed more time was the PP. Reynders, through his spokesperson, has reiterated throughout the week that he “remains available” to help find a solution to the current CGPJ blockade. And that offer remains on the table after Von der Leyen’s decision on her leave of absence, community sources say. The Commission only agreed to get involved by setting a deadline for the dialogue of two months that expired at the end of this week and remains determined that the process cannot last forever, but does not want to break the deck at this time.
The unusual initiative to involve Brussels in the internal Spanish conversations on the renewal of the CGPJ and the reform “immediately after” of the system of election of judges, came from the leader of the popular parties, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, during the meeting he held with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in Moncloa at the end of 2023. Von der Leyen did not expect such an assignment and took his time answering but agreed. The PP, however, seems to no longer consider it such a good idea.
“It is evident that there are difficulties in reaching an agreement with a PSOE with which it is very difficult to understand because it is very difficult to trust,” said the parliamentary spokesperson for the popular party, Miguel Tellado, this Tuesday, in line with the arguments used by Esteban González. Pons, deputy secretary of Institutional Affairs of the party, after the meeting with the Minister of Justice and representative of the PSOE, Félix Bolaños, and Commissioner Reynders in Strasbourg, a meeting that coincided with the final stretch of the processing of the Amnesty Law in Congress . Reynders, for his part, has a few more weeks to continue pushing the parties to reach an agreement that complies with the recommendations included by the Commission in its latest reports on the situation of the rule of law in the Union.
