After a dispute that lasted more than five years, Spain’s ruling Socialists (PSOE) and the main opposition party, the conservative People’s Party (PP), have reached an agreement, brokered by the EU, on the replacement of key judicial posts.
Spanish Socialist Justice Minister Félix Bolaños and conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Esteban González Pons reached the agreement in Brussels on Tuesday with the support of European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová.
“It is a great day for our democracy and for our rule of law,” Bolaños told journalists in Brussels.
As a result of the blockade, the General Council for the Judiciary (CGPJ) had only been in office on an acting basis since 2018 and many judicial posts could not be filled. The two parties have now agreed on a list of names for the future members of the CGPJ, state television channel RTVE reported.
The agreement came just before the expiry of an ultimatum that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had given to the PP. If no agreement was reached by Sunday, the government planned to introduce a law that would have revoked the power to appoint supreme court judges from the CGPJ, which now has only executive power.
The legal dispute was about overcoming the blockage in the renewal of posts in the CGPJ. The EU has repeatedly called on Spain to resolve the dispute quickly.
The CGPJ is a judicial review board that also appoints the judges of the Supreme Courts. It has the power to elect two members of the Constitutional Court.
Conservatives have had the majority in the council since the time the PP was in power. In 2018, the PP lost power and had to go into opposition. Since then, it has tried to maintain the conservative majority in the CGPJ.
As recommended by the European Commission in its report on the rule of law in Spain for the years 2022 and 2023, the agreement includes the decision to proceed with the immediate renewal of the CGPJ and to submit a proposal for an Organic Law for the independence of the judiciary and, finally, the appointment of a new judge to the Constitutional Court.
This should be approved at a plenary session of the Congress of Deputies in July.
Twelve of the twenty members of the CGPJ are nominated by the judges and must be confirmed by parliament with a 60% majority, while the remaining eight are directly elected by parliament, without any input from the judges. This procedure gives political parties significant influence over the judiciary.
