Reynders postpones the Madrid meeting on CGPJ at the request of the PP and after verifying that the parties “need more time”

The meeting that the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, proposed to have this Wednesday in Madrid with the negotiators of the PSOE and the PP to seek an agreement that would unlock the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) was finally postponed at the request of the ‘ popular’ and after Brussels confirmed that the parties needed “more time”. This is explained to Europa Press by community sources who emphasize that the reason for the postponement “absolutely” has to do with agenda issues of the commissioner, who “is available” to travel to Madrid “as soon as the parties are ready to meet.” After the last mediation meeting held in Strasbourg (France) on March 13, Reynders proposed to the negotiators, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, and the Deputy Secretary of Institutional Action of the PP, Esteban González Pons, see you again in Madrid on Wednesday, March 27. The plane tickets for Reynders and his team were already purchased at the end of last week, according to the sources consulted, but were finally canceled after verifying that Bolaños and Pons “need more time” before a new meeting was held. It was the Popular Party, they say from Brussels, who requested to “delay” the meeting. The announcement of the postponement coincides with the officialization of Reynders’ candidacy to be secretary general of the Council of Europe – an organization outside the EU but which the institutions listen to to set their standards on the rule of law. The confirmation that the commissioner has been selected among the finalists will force him to take unpaid leave to focus on the Council of Europe campaign, although it will be the president of the community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, who will decide in the next hours that another member of the College of Commissioners assumes his portfolio. This same Monday, the spokesperson for the Popular Party, Borja Sémper, warned in a press conference that “this meeting is not going to take place, it is not confirmed that it will be on Wednesday”, without clarifying the reasons for the postponement, while adding that “whatever” the meeting is, the PP is going to “insist until the end” on the objective of reaching an agreement. Both the PSOE and the PP have declared their willingness to seek a solution and turned to the Community Executive as a facilitator, for which Reynderes established a “structured dialogue” that is based on the annual recommendations on the rule of law. In these recommendations, the Commission urges Spain to renew the governing body of judges as a priority and begin “immediately thereafter” the process of reforming the system of electing members. Despite the talks that began in Brussels on January 31, the PSOE and PP still have not resolved the differences regarding the timing of the reform of the model for electing judges that the Government wants to leave until after the urgent renewal but that the PP wants to close in a parallel process. Even so, Reynders was optimistic after the third meeting in mid-March and said he still saw a “possibility” of agreement and promised to “continue working” to help “stabilize” the situation.