It is still early to say categorically that the European Commission has "no concern" about the amnesty bill currently being debated in Spain by the Congress of Deputies, the community spokesperson for Justice said today after Minister Enrique Bolaños concluded yesterday that the community executive has "zero" concerns in this regard. Brussels, in fact, has said on several occasions that it will not issue an evaluation of the law until it has been approved, with its eventual amendments, hence, as the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said yesterday, the dialogue "will continue" and today he recalled that he still has some "questions" about the initiative.
"The analysis is still underway. Therefore, in that sense, the commissioner has not said for now that the amnesty law does not raise concerns," explained Reynders' spokesman, Christian Wigand, when asked at the daily press conference. of the European Commission if he shared the analysis carried out the day before by the Spanish Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, who also met with Vice President Vera Jourová. Wigand has specified that the meetings were "constructive" and that it was agreed to "continue" the dialogue on issues related to the rule of law in Spain that were put on the table, especially the need to renew the General Council of Power Judicial and the amnesty law. "The commissioner informed the minister that he has questions and wants to continue the conversations with the Spanish authorities," concluded the community spokesperson.
Despite the comments of the European Commission, Bolaños reaffirms his words regarding "zero concern" about the health of the rule of law in Spain. "Yesterday it was very clear and today I repeat word for word what I said. There is zero concern about the amnesty and the health of the rule of law in Spain. I regret having punctured the balloon of the right and the extreme right. In Europe they are already very well known their exaggerations," the minister declared, already back in Madrid, during the open day at the Congress of Deputies.
Every year the European Commission prepares a report on the situation of the rule of law in each country of the Union and in its last two editions it has even included specific recommendations to each Government to improve the democratic health of the member state in question. In the case of Spain, the main concerns refer to the lack of renewal of the CGPJ, the need to reform the system of election of judges and to separate the mandates of the Attorney General and the Government. The next report will not be issued until July of next year, but at the beginning of November, Commissioner Reynders became interested in the debate on the amnesty and requested information from the acting Government, even before the PSOE submitted the bill to Congress. information about it.
Since then, Brussels and Madrid have been in constant contact about the law and have exchanged calls, letters and documents. The preliminary analysis of the community executive, according to sources consulted by this newspaper, is that the draft of the law avoids the two points that could have been problematic with respect to community law since it does not make reference at any time to the concept of lawfare and also makes explicit that “crimes affecting the financial interests of the EU” are excluded from its scope. The European Commission, however, reaffirms that it will not evaluate the law until the final text is approved, hence it will not consider the matter closed.
