The latest Greco report speaks of a “highly unsatisfactory situation” due to the effects on the independence of judges | Llop will go to the European Parliament in January to explain the situation
Just one day after the four-year blockade in the political negotiations to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Europe has once again ‘pulled our country by the ears’ for the “highly unsatisfactory situation” and its effects on “real and perceived” independence by citizens about justice. For its part, the judiciary laments the “manifest inability” of the political class to act despite the warnings of European organizations.
In his latest report, in which he assessed compliance with a dozen recommendations he made on the quality of our rule of law almost a decade ago, in 2013, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe calls again to unlock the situation. For the most progressive sector of judges, the problem lies in the “obstructionist attitude” of the PP, while in other areas blame is shared equally with the Government of Pedro Sánchez and it is recalled that Europe advocates a system in which judges choose judges for your governing body.
While the blockade situation continues, the Executive has announced that the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, will go to the European Parliament on January 12 to explain the situation in Spain with the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). You have accepted the invitation to appear before the civil liberties commission of the European Parliament on this body and its reform, although the deputies may ask the Spanish minister about other matters in her portfolio.
Explanations also about the penal code
In parallel, the PP plans This same Monday, bring to the meeting of coordinators of the Civil Liberties Commission a request for Llop to appear also on the proposals for reforms that affect the Penal Code, such as the crime of sedition or the possible crime of embezzlement, as well as the consequences of the entry into force of the so-called “law of only yes is yes”, reports efe.
From the CGPJ itself, vocals like José María Macías, appointed at the time at the proposal of the PP, stress that GRECO confirms two aspects of our legislation that it considers worrying: that the judges do not choose the members of the council and that the 2021 reform does not allow appointments. “Of both I think There is only one person in charge, to whom it seems to me that this report does not produce cold or heat“, added, in statements to El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group, in clear allusion to the Government.
Since most judicial associations insist on these warnings, the spokesman for the Independent Judicial Forum (FJI), Fernando Portillo, points out to this newspaper that they find it “very serious” that GRECO has been warning Spain for more than fifteen years of the need to partially depoliticize the CGPJ (opting for the direct election by the judiciary of the 12 members of judicial origin) and that the different governments that have followed one another have done nothing to meet this demand. “The parties only when they are in opposition do they remember what Europe is asking for, but then, when they arrive, they are forgotten because it does not suit their desire for power and control,” he recalls, mentioning the current demands of the PP.
According to this judge, “You cannot belong to international organizations, such as the Council of Europe, and fail to comply with what comes to us from theretaking into account, in addition, that these standards of separation of powers and the fight against corruption are the ones that the European Union itself takes as a reference”, he affirms. He also recalls that the European organization also requests that the discretionary appointments of high judicial officials be objectiveand this also remains unfulfilled.
“Stubborn rebellion” of all governments
For Jorge Fernández Vaquero, from the Association of Judges and Magistrates Francisco de Vitoria (AJFV), It is very significant that of the eleven recommendations that El Greco directed to Spain almost a decade ago, in 2013there is only one in which absolutely nothing has been advanced, which is the one that has to do with the system of election of the judges that must integrate the CGPJ.
“There are ten years of obstinate rebellion by the Spanish authorities, by all the governments and almost all the parliaments that have passed in this decade when it comes to complying with a recommendation that, let us not forget, is aimed at improving our institutional framework to fight against corruption, because the purpose of the report is to fight against the corruption of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors,” he adds.
It also points out that the report confirms that the situation of lack of renewal of the Board for four years and the reform that deprived it of the competence to make appointments has further aggravated the assessment that GRECO deserves for our institutional situation in this area. “We should be concerned about the manifest inability, which obviously has to be voluntary, of our politicians, to improve our anti-corruption system”concludes the spokesman for the “Vitorinos”, as the members of the second association of judges with the most members in our country are known in the judicial career.
The role of the opposition
Edmundo Rodríguez Achútegui, from Judges and Judges for Democracy (JJpD), recalls that GRECO ratifies the concern that the entire judicial spectrum expresses due to the lack of renewal of the CGPJ. However, he points out in front of his companions that “the insistence that Parliament not intervene in the election of judges by their peers does not take into account that in Spanish law this is possible and, moreover, convenient, because the CGPJ governs the judiciary for the whole of society, and must be a reflection of its plural sensibility“.
In his opinion, “it would be reasonable for encourage the Popular Party to abandon its obstructionist attitudewhich is affecting the international consideration of Spain, and that it listen to this and other international calls to modify its attitude of irresponsible boycott of the renewal of the CGPJ”.
With this position agree the progressive prosecutors. Your spokesperson, Ines Herreros, points out to this newspaper that “the situation of paralysis in which the main opposition party has placed the CGPJ is very worrying. I believe that the refusal to renew its members is something that the Popular Party can sustain over time , in part, due to the litany with which citizens perceive the judiciary”. He regrets that, Of the three powers of the State, the judiciary is the power from which the people feel furthest awaysince “that It has a lot to do with the institutional crisis that goes through”.
The report of the Council of Europe has also been expressed by spokesperson for the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF), Salvador Viadawhich insists that the members of the CGPJ who are judges must be elected by their peers, without political intervention, as highlighted in section XVI of the GRECO report.
As far as the Prosecutor’s Office is concerned, it points out that the European body is satisfied with the modifications in the disciplinary procedurewith the figure of the Disciplinary Action Promoter. “But GRECO does not know that this key figure has been chosen by the State Attorney General without any support from the elected members or with associative consensus,” warns. That is to say, he does not know that the independence of this new body appears extremely limited. But we will tell”.