“The lack of renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary is negatively affecting the work of the Supreme Court and the justice system as a whole.” It is not a new diagnosis, stressing it will not help and everyone in the European Union has been waiting for months to see if the elections achieve the expected miracle of unblocking what has been poisoning since 2018. But despite all this, the European Commission cannot get tired of repeating it, and that is why, once again, it leads with this message the Report on the Rule of Law in Spain in 2023.
The EU has a serious problem with Hungary y Poland. But in order to dilute the constant reproaches a bit and the establishment of mechanisms to be able to sanction, he invented in this legislature the figure of the State of Law Report, a long text that the commissioner’s team Didier Reynders elaborates for the 27 member states, trying to demonstrate that there is no unequal treatment. The Report covers the entire system, highlighting the greatest weaknesses and pointing out the most urgent and necessary recommendations. And it is done after speaking with the main actors: Government, opposition, associations of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, experts or university professors. By phone and in-person visits to Madrid.
The 2023 Report does not present great news regarding the steps and believes that the main risks and concerns are the same: the non-renewal of the CGPJ and that therefore work is not being done on a reform of the election system for its members, so that , according to the standards of the Council of Europe, the magistrates choose at least half of their members. The independence of the prosecution, or rather the lack of it, both due to the appointment by the Government (which can even choose a former minister for the position) and because the mandates coincide in time. And the problems of work overload, digitization and technical issues.
The commissioners know that it is a very sensitive issue, but they also threw in the towel months ago, when it seemed that the PSOE and the PP were going to reach an agreement, but it was cut short at the last moment. That day they assumed that there would be no changes in the legislature and that they would have to wait to see the parliamentary majorities and minorities in the next one. The electoral advance has changed the calendar somewhat, but not his ideas. And the message that they wanted to send this Wednesday is that they hope that the new government will assume normalization in the judiciary as a first priority. And that Brussels is ready to help, to mediate and contribute so that what has been impossible in five years finally arrives at port.
“We have the same expectations regardless of who is in government and which party wins the elections. We have made it clear in the past that the blockade of the CGPJ causes us concerns. The report says that the paralysis in the renewal has effects on the functioning of the Supreme Court and in the system as a whole. It is not something new and we will continue to say it because the objective of all political groups should be the renewal of the Council as a priority”, said Vice President Vera Jourova. “Of course we know that the elections are going to be held in the coming weeks, I was in Madrid yesterday and the pre-election atmosphere was noticeable, so we will have to wait for the winners to act. We will continue repeating that it is a priority and essential to correct a series of pending problems”, he added.