The last obstacle to its renewal is the debate on the system of election of its members
MADRID, 4 (EUROPA PRESS)
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) meets this Saturday three years with the expired mandate due to the inability of PSOE and PP to reach an agreement on their new members, a deadlock that, after the reform operated to prevent it from making appointments in While the judicial leadership remained in office, some chambers of the Supreme Court have been thrown into a “collapse” situation.
In a last negotiating effort, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the General Secretary of the PP, Teodoro García Egea, started a new dialogue in October to renew the constitutional bodies whose mandate had expired. And they did so with the Constitutional Court (TC), the Court of Accounts or the Ombudsman, but the CGPJ is still pending.
The stumbling block on this occasion is the election system of the twelve members from the judicial turn. The PP demands that the law be changed first, so that the judges are chosen by the judges themselves, and then proceed to the renewal. The Government, for its part, is not closing to a possible reform but insists that a new CGPJ must first be appointed. Negotiation sources tell Europa Press that they do not see the possibility of reaching the agreement before the end of the year.
The president of the CGPJ and the Supreme Court (TS), Carlos Lesmes, again denounced, on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year on September 6, the “unsustainable” situation of the governing body of judges, urging force policies to leave this issue out of the “partisan struggle” to close an agreement.
In addition, Lesmes warned that the lack of renewal of the CGPJ is not only a problem for the judiciary, but also for the whole of Spanish society, since “it was designed by the Constitution itself to guarantee independence in the exercise of the function judicial”.
APPOINTMENTS STOPPED
In an attempt to force the PP to renew the CGPJ, the PSOE and United Podemos parliamentary groups promoted a reform of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power (LOPJ) that was approved last March and that prevents a Council in office from being able to make appointments to the judicial leadership.
The Supreme Court has already sounded the alarm, through the president of its Civil Chamber, magistrate Francisco Marín Castán, who in a recent report warned that it is “essential” to incorporate five magistrates to the technical cabinet to avoid the “collapse “of this room before the” avalanche “of resources that is expected.
During the processing of said reform, in February, ‘popular’ and socialists undertook a new negotiation that derailed again, but this time due to the veto of the PP to two ‘candidates’ promoted by United We Can, José Ricardo de Prada and Victoria Rosell.
Since then, the already former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo assured that the agreement was made in the absence of the Popular Party agreeing to make it public, although now the formation of Pablo Casado requires changing the election system.
EUROPE NOTICES
Europe has been encouraging a reform for years to bring Spanish legislation closer to continental standards, according to which at least half of the members of the CGPJ should be elected by their peers.
Thus, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe has lamented the “lack of positive progress” and “tangible” regarding the election system of the General Council of the Judiciary, urging Spain to undertake its eventual reform giving “voice” to its members.
For his part, the EU Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders, has described the excessive interim of the CGPJ as “abnormal”, urging the political parties to remedy it through “the best possible renewal”, while calling for a “commitment clear “that there will also be a reform of the election system.
THE JUDGES ASK TO RENEW
The judicial associations APM, AJFV, JJpD and FJI joined forces in a joint statement to show that the current blockade for the renewal of the CGPJ represents “a serious institutional anomaly that must be corrected.”
They also explained that they agree that it is “necessary” to reform the system of election of judicial members so that they are appointed in accordance with “a democratic system that ensures the representation of all categories and existing sensitivities within the judicial career.”
They assumed that there are differences between them on whether the current system should be modified “immediately or later”, although in any case they reproached the political groups for tackling the problem of renewing the CGPJ for “exclusively partisan purposes.”
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
As of today, the law states that the governing body of the judges must be made up of the president of the Supreme Court and 20 members, of whom twelve will be judges or magistrates on active duty in the judicial career, and eight jurists from recognized competence.
According to article 567 of the LOPJ, these 20 members are appointed by the Cortes Generales according to the principle of equal presence between men and women. Specifically, each chamber elects by a majority of three-fifths to 10 members, four from among jurists of recognized competence with more than 15 years of practice in their profession and six corresponding to the judicial shift.
In addition, the LOPJ in its article 568 says that the CGPJ is renewed in its entirety every five years and that the presidents of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate must adopt the necessary measures so that the renewal of the Council occurs on time.