Brussels puts pressure on Spain to renew the Judiciary

The Commissioner of Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, after the meeting this Monday with the associations of Spanish judges. Delmi Alvarez

The entrenched problem of the General Council of the Spanish Judiciary has reached the heart of the European Union. And the message from Brussels is categorical: Government and opposition must get down to work and negotiate the renewal of the governing body of the judges to abandon an “anomalous” blockade situation in the community bloc and also do so with a “clear commitment "To reform the system for selecting members so that it" fully complies with the standards of the Council of Europe. " "The requirement that we ask is that there be a majority of members of the Council who are judges chosen by the judges," said Reynders. In the current system of election of the CGPJ, the judges are more than half (12 of 20), but they are not directly elected by the members of the race,rather, they are selected by Congress and the Senate from a list of candidates proposed by the associations or by the interested parties themselves.

More information

• Judges' associations travel to Brussels to request the involvement of the EU in the renewal of the Council

This was claimed this Monday by Didier Reynders, European Commissioner of Justice, after receiving the four associations of Spanish judges in Brussels: "It is very important to get out of this situation in which there is a Council of the Judiciary in office with limited powers" , has qualified after the meeting.

"So we ask all political parties to try to get out [of the blockade] and find an agreement with a qualified majority."

Reynders has appeared at the foot of the Berlaymont, headquarters of the Community Executive, and in his speech he highlighted that the judicial groups - the progressive Judges and Judges for Democracy and the conservative Professional Association of the Magistracy (APM), Francisco de Vitoria and Foro Independent Judiciary (FJI) - they have arrived at his office with a conciliatory speech that suggests “a possible agreement” between them “on the way forward”, in the words of the Belgian commissioner.

The commissioner has urged that "immediately" try to organize "the best possible renewal of the Council with a clear commitment that in the future fully comply with European standards", thus linking the two requirements that keep the conflict between political blocs: while some demand an urgent renewal of an organ that has expired since 2018, others ask, as a prerequisite, for the reform of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power to modify the system for electing the members of the judicial quota. Although Reynders has not wanted to pronounce clearly on the order - "I do not want to say what comes before, if the egg or the chicken", he has ironized -, he has hinted that the two are inseparable and will require the agreement of the majority of the parliamentary arch. "When you need a qualified majority it is not easy",It has been recognized. "But if you want to protect values ​​and the rule of law, you need to have a common approach with a large part of parliament."

The commissioner does not feel at the moment "a real concern for the independence of justice in Spain"; This case is not similar to that of Poland, for example, a country with which Brussels is fighting a bitter battle on account of political interference in the work of judges. In fact, there are other countries with similar situations to Spain, such as Italy and Luxembourg. "The appearance of citizens has become a problem," Reynders said.