The European Commission is open to reactivating mediation to unblock the negotiations surrounding the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), but only if concrete proposals are on the table. Vera Jourová, the Commission vice-president, has received an urgent request from Esteban González Pons, the PP’s deputy secretary for institutional action and negotiator, and Félix Bolaños, the Spanish government’s justice minister. Brussels, however, remains cautious for now.
The spokesperson for justice, Christian Wiegand, stated that the Commission has received the invitation for a meeting from both sides, is reviewing it, and is in contact with the two parties. Yet the executive branch in Brussels makes it clear that if PP and PSOE want a new encounter with Jourová acting as referee, they will need to present a solid basis for discussion. To make any meeting meaningful, negotiations must be grounded in proposals from both sides so both parties can agree on what is being discussed. Sources from the European Commission emphasized that another meeting would only make sense if there is a type of proposal on which to negotiate to assess whether it could be effective.
Should the Commission receive a reasonable offer, a new meeting could be convened. The same sources cautioned that no dates have been set for such a possible appointment. Minister Bolaños has suggested the possibility of holding it this Friday, but given the urgency and Jourová’s participation in Luxembourg at a Justice Ministers Council, a Madrid trip seems unlikely. A meeting in Brussels next week could be an option if a tangible paper is presented on the table.
The current contacts mark Bolaños and González Pons’s first engagement with the European Commission since Didier Reynders stepped down in April from his mediation role to campaign for the Secretariat General of the Council of Europe. Although the Belgian liberal left mediation ten days before the scheduled date, the European Commission supported continuing mediation within the framework of the structured dialogue launched earlier in the year. At that time, Reynders had given himself a two-month window, but in the three meetings held in Brussels and Strasbourg none of the parties reached an agreement. The fourth and final meeting that Reynders had arranged after the three-party discussion in Alsace was ultimately canceled for Madrid at the end of March.