Nine members of the twenty that make up the General Council of the Judiciary have sent a letter to the president of the body, Carlos Lesmes, in which they ask him to include in the agenda of the plenary session next Thursday the new reform that returns to the CGPJ the competence only to appoint the two magistrates of the TC whose election corresponds to this body. The veto on other discretionary appointments remains intact.
In the text, to which ABC has had access, the members consider it "contradictory and incoherent" that the explanatory statement of the bill justifies this reform in the difficulties for the renewal of the constitutional bodies, referring to the TC and not to the rest of the courts in which appointments remain paralyzed: "the court of guarantees is as constitutional an organ as are the Courts and Tribunals, served by judges and magistrates who are members of the Judicial Power," they point out.
These members criticize that once again the Government dispenses with the report of the governing body of the judges, which is directly affected by the reform, opting for the bill instead of a draft that would force the text to be submitted for consideration by the body. "However, the principle of interpretation in accordance with the Law of the European Union (...) requires that, when the bill refers to the nuclear aspects of the status of the members of the judiciary or that affect the status or functions of the members of the governing body of the judiciary, must be processed hearing all the sectors involved, which includes the CGPJ itself«.
Remember that the European Commission has expressed itself in this sense in many recommendations and this has been communicated to Spain on two occasions by the community spokesman for Justice Dydier Reynders.
“In the above circumstances, and given the possibility that the aforementioned legislative initiative might be taken into consideration by the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies, with its consequent parliamentary processing, the signatory members (...) request that the following points be included to the agenda of the Plenary Session of the Council scheduled for June 30, 2022: on the one hand, request the Congress of Deputies to obtain the report of the CGPJ in relation to the new reform in the aspect related to the powers of this Council in the sense of also and fully returning the attributions for judicial and governmental-judicial appointments of a discretionary nature«. On the other hand, »apply to the European Commission to report on the aforementioned bill«. The letter is signed by the members of the conservative sector of the Council Wenceslao Olea, Nuria Díaz Abad, José Antonio Ballestero, Juan Martínez Moya, José María Macías, Juan Manuel Fernández, Gerardo Martínez Tristán, María Ángeles Carmona and Carmen Llombart.
