Justice The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament asks Bolaños to appear as the new Minister of Justice

The president of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, Adrián Vázquez, sent a letter this Friday to the new Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, inviting him to appear before this body before the end of the Spanish presidency of the European Union.

In the letter, to which EL MUNDO has had access, Vázquez (Ciudadanos) maintains that he is addressing Bolaños “in relation to the planned appearance of the Minister of Justice before our commission within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union , which was scheduled for November 29 and has recently been cancelled. I must convey our concern about the cancellation of the appearance, especially taking into account that it is not the first time that the Legal Affairs Committee extends its invitation to debate the priorities of the Spanish Presidency on issues of maximum relevance, such as the rule of law, judicial cooperation, civil and commercial affairs and business sustainability, among others. In the letter, the president of the Commission regrets that the former Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, did not respond to the invitations sent by this institution.

Likewise, Adrián Vázquez highlights that “until now” all the previous Ministers of Justice of the successive European presidencies have appeared before the aforementioned commission and that “the absence on this occasion constitutes a notable and worrying deviation from said norm.”

Finally, the president of the Legal Studies Commission proposes to Félix Bolaños “to reschedule the appearance for the last meeting of the Commission this year, which will take place on December 7.”

On the other hand, the head of Justice announced this Friday that next week he will travel to Brussels and will meet on Wednesday with the Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, and on Thursday with the vice-president of the Commission responsible for the State of Law, Vera Jourová.

For his part, Bolaños began today the round of contacts with the world of Justice with a first visit to the president of the General Council of the Judiciary, Vicente Guilarte. Both have agreed on the need to renew the mandate of the governing body of the judges while Guilarte has proposed to the minister alternative formulas to solve the unusual institutional situation that the Council and the Supreme Court are going through.

According to sources familiar with the terms in which the meeting took place, the minister has conveyed to the president of the Council that his intention is to propose to the Popular Party to resume the negotiations for the renewal at the point at which they were blown up when the Government announced that it would repeal sedition in October 2022.

For his part, Guilarte maintained, in a meeting that took place in a “cordial tone” that he saw little progress in this possible pact and that other formulas should be sought to reach an agreement with the Council.

The president is in favor of modifying the system of election of high magistracy judges within the body. Not in vain, he has proposed that the appointments of Supreme Court justices be carried out through a regulated competition, with public scales and a specialized court, to always prioritize merit and capacity in discretionary appointments.