A sector of the CGPJ: "The reform is contrary to the Constitution and European standards"

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• Justice: Three judicial associations, against the reform of the CGPJ of Sánchez

A group of seven members of the conservative sector of the General Council of the Judicial Power (CGPJ) maintains that the reform of the

that the Government of Pedro Sánchez intends to carry out is "contrary to our

and the standards established in the within the

and the

. "This is how the proposed declaration states that the directors

the Fernández, Juan Martínez Moya

Y

have been registered to be debated by the plenary session of the governing body of judges.

These seven members, appointed at the proposal of the

Popular Party

, have requested the president

the call of "urgency" of the extraordinary plenary session under the

of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power (LOPJ) to analyze the proposed Law registered this week by the

PSOE

Y

United we can

in the

Congress of Deputies

In the registered draft institutional declaration, to which you have had access

, this sector of the CGPJ maintains that the reform that is now proposed "weakens the constitutional role of the General Council of the Judiciary and with it the institutional defense of judicial independence."

The coalition Government intends that the 12 members of judicial origin be elected by an absolute majority of the Chambers instead of by three fifths of the same as currently established by the Law. In addition, the PSOE and Podemos registered this legal modification under the formula of law proposal to be able to carry it out within a period of two months and without having to collect the mandatory -but non-binding- reports from the Council itself, the

and the

In fact, these members criticize that the present reform “has not been submitted to a report from the General Council of the Judiciary, also contrary to what European standards require.

Thus, the

In its opinion number 10 on the Councils of Justice, it indicates that all legislative projects related to the statute of the judge, the administration of justice, procedural law and, more generally, any legislative project likely to have an impact on the Judiciary (. ..) should be submitted, before the deliberation of Parliament, to the opinion of the Council of Justice ". The conservative bloc of the governing body of judges recalls that the Constitution in its

establishes that the CGPJ is made up of 20 members, 12 elected from among judges and magistrates and eight from jurists of recognized competence, of which four are elected by Congress and four by the

Senate

, "by a three-fifths majority. This qualified majority is intended to avoid the politicization of the governing body of judges, forcing a very large majority to be obtained in the Chambers for the election of non-judicial members."

Jurisprudence of the TC

In this sense, they allude to the jurisprudence of the

constitutional Court

in sentences handed down in 1986 and 2016 where it addressed the election system of the CGPJ and established that the Judicial Power must remain "outside the fight between parties."

"The attribution to the Courts of the power to propose the judicial members of the Council, by requiring a qualified majority of three fifths in each Chamber, seemed to the Constitutional Court a sufficient guarantee, although it recognized that with this system of parliamentary election the risk that the Chambers, acting with admissible criteria in other areas, but not in this one, attend only to the division of forces existing within their own bosom and distribute the positions to be filled among the different parties, in proportion to the parliamentary strength of The logic of the Party State encourages actions of this kind, but that same logic forces certain spheres of power to be kept aside from the struggle of parties and among them, and notably, the Judicial Power, "add the seven members who subscribe to this proposed institutional declaration. This group of advisers also refers to the comparison of the express reform of Sánchez and

Churches

with the

carried out in Poland

.

"The European Commission in relation to a similar reform regarding the Council of the Judiciary of Poland in its recommendation 2018/103, of December 20, 2017 indicates that the law weakens the independence of the Council in relation to the majority of Parliament and contributes to a weakening of the independence of the judiciary as a whole, "they explain. Consequently, the counselors propose that the Plenary of the CGPJ -whose date has not yet been set- agree that" the proposed reform is contrary to our Constitution and the standards established within the Council of Europe and the European Union, which weakens the constitutional role of the General Council of the Judiciary and thus the institutional defense of judicial independence. "Legal sources explain that having requested the extraordinary meeting more than five vowels,

Carlos Lesmes

he is forced to summon it.

The only doubts yesterday in this body were about when the said plenary session would be held.

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