Spain is not Poland, but it must be watched. This is the idea expressed by the Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, during his visit to Spain to meet with representatives of the Government, political formations, judicial associations and high-ranking representatives of the judiciary, such as the President of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Carlos Lesmes, or the State Attorney General, Álvaro García.
Reynders has come to Spain for two days with a clear objective, to get the PP and PSOE to agree and end the blockade of the body of judges, in office since December 2018. After their talks, the European leader has launched His conclusion: the most urgent thing is to renew the body to immediately study the reform of the law so that the judges elect their members.
The justice commissioner has talked and listened to all of them and has conveyed his concern to them, but there is nothing more he can do. "I'm not here to negotiate anything, I'm not here to take the jobs away from Spanish politicians," he explained during an informative breakfast organized by Forum Europe.
Reynders explains that Spain is not in the same scenario as Poland and Hungary, which do reveal "systemic" problems that affect the independence of their judges, but their situation can be improved. “We cannot allow a regression of the judicial system”, he has indicated.
For the European representative, Spain has to set an example, especially now that it is going to take over the presidency of the EU. Reynders has set a clarifying example: "We ask Russia to comply with international law and to be credible we have to do it in our house as well," he snapped, before adding that he hopes the CGPJ situation will be resolved in the "coming weeks ”.
A few days ago, the Commissioner for Justice made some public statements that sounded the alarm to the Government, after dropping that the reform of the law to modify the system of electing judges should be a priority.
This is the thesis of the PP, which seeks to modify the norm and then choose the members. The PSOE has a completely different approach. It demands that the main opposition party stick to the current election system, renew the body that has been in office for almost four years, and then sit down to negotiate a possible reform.
The background is that the socialists do not see with good eyes the reform proposed both by the PP and by the majority of the judicial associations and the recommendations of the European Union. The reason for the reluctance is that, in his opinion, currently the judicial career is made up of a large majority of conservative judges. If the members remain in their hands, the body of judges will not have a plurality of representatives in the judicial career, with different sensitivities, as is the case in Parliament.
Reynders has it clear. The system has to be changed. We can no longer wait for the renewal, but as soon as it is done, in his opinion, that reform must be carried out immediately.
In addition, it has focused on the election system of the State Attorney General in Spain. Reynders wanted to clarify that he does not believe that the Prosecutor's Office is not independent, but he does maintain that the fact that it is the Government that appoints it harms the image that exists among citizens.
“If we want to have an efficient fight against corruption, an independent Prosecutor's Office is essential. We are not saying that it is not independent, but we want to improve the perception of the population”, she has indicated.
In his opinion, there is a "degradation" because the perception in the population is not good, the idea of "honesty" is not impregnated. “We have no concern about judicial independence in Spain. What we want is to improve the system and the confidence of the population”, he underlined.
Reynders has also met today with the president of the CGPJ, Carlos Lesmes, who has defined the situation of the Spanish Justice as "unsustainable".
The commissioner thanked Lesmes for his role in promoting the reform of the election system for the members of the judicial shift in application of European standards.
Lesmes has shown Reynders his concern about the effect that the confrontation between the political forces in matters related to Justice -and particularly his inability to reach an agreement for the renewal of the Council- may have on the "appearance of impartiality and independence" of the Judiciary.
In addition, he wanted to alert you to the damage caused by the reform promoted by the Government and approved last year to prevent the CGPJ from continuing to appoint magistrates while it is in office, which is causing a collapse in various judicial bodies, especially all in Supreme Court.
