20 Catalan organizations have not been renewed for longer than the Judiciary | READY

Next December 4 will mark three years of the blockade of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). The governing body of the judges has not been renewed for more than 1,000 days due to the lack of agreement (and will even to pick up the phone to negotiate) between the PSOE and the PP. This inaction makes rivers of ink flow and criticism comes from all the institutions and from all the parties. Also from Catalonia. But since it is always less difficult to see the straw in someone else’s eye than the beam in your own, the reality is that at least 20 Catalan public bodies They have positions pending renewal for a longer time than the Judiciary.

In total, in Catalonia there are at least 108 positions that remain with the mandate expired for a long time. Some have been like this for more than six years, since 2015, as is the case with half of the councilors of the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA), that is, the governing body of TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio. The other half finished their terms in 2018, also before the Judiciary entered an interim situation. The renewal in public media is the one that accumulates the longest delay, but the list of blocked organizations affects entities as relevant as the Audit Office, the Council of Statutory Guarantees and the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia.

Last week, in the general policy debate, ERC, Junts and the CUP jointly voted on a motion for a resolution to “unlock” appointments of the institutions pending renewal “before the end of the year.” But many of those long-stranded designations require a broader parliamentary majority, which makes the participation of the two majority forces in the hemicycle essential, PSC Y Left handed. The Socialists moved token in September with a round of contacts with the groups to try to promote the renewals, also aware that, as winners of the elections in votes, they would now have a quota in many of those organizations.

Because of the blocks

The iron blocks into which Catalan politics have been divided for some time have made most of these appointments impossible. The current composition of the Chamber maintains the two blocks, but the fact that now the majority group is the PSC (tied with ERC), and not Ciutadans, raises the question of whether it will be easier to build cross majorities to unravel pending renovations.

The Socialists propose to the groups a “great agreement” within a period of three months to undertake the appointments and that these are carried out “with guarantees of equality, transparency and agreement” regarding the profiles, which should be chosen, according to the PSC, by the “principles of merit, capacity, professionalism, representativeness, pluralism Y parity“. The PSC’s proposal also involves” establishing a monitoring and accountability mechanism “for the chosen people.

This dynamics of granite blocks was eloquently reflected three years ago, when an attempt was made to renew the TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio dome. In December 2018, Ciutadans, JxCat, ERC and PSC were able to agree on a list of names of the six councilors of the CCMA. However, a few days after an entente was made public that united Cs with the two Government parties in the same photo, the oranges decided to freeze the pact as a result of a controversy over the praise of the then ‘president’, Quim Roast, to the Slovenian path to achieve independence. Nothing has been heard from this renovation. In addition, the 16 members of the CCMA’s content advisory council have had their mandate expired since July 2016.

Guarantee Council, CAC …

On March 13 of this year, the mandate of the last member of the Council of Statutory Guarantees that remained in active of the six that the Parliament must elect. The other five members of the advisory body that determines the adaptation of the laws to the Statute and the Constitution were already pending to be replaced. Joan Egea Y Carles Jaume Their mandate has expired since November 2015, but they continue to hold office pending Parliament’s agreement to renew it. And also in functions are Pere Jover Y Jaume Vernet since November 2018. In addition, Joan Ridao He resigned from the post in 2016 to be appointed Senior Counsel of the Parliament, but his chair remains vacant.

In the case of Audiovisual Council of CataloniaAll its members, five, also have expired terms. In May 2020 he resigned due to retirement Salvador Alsius, and his seat has not been replaced. The four remaining councilors (the president, Roger loppacher; Carme figueres, Daniel sirera e Yvonne griley) should have already been replaced. Griley’s mandate expired last June (in fact, the Government appointed her general director of Religious Afers, at the proposal of Junts), but those of Loppacher, Figueres and Sirera have expired since 2018, when they completed the six non-renewable years that they set the law.

The renewal of this body is especially complex because it requires the agreement of 90 deputies out of 135, which leads to an agreement between PSC, ERC and Junts. In other organisms the necessary majority is 81 votes, which also makes the endorsement of only the independence forces insufficient. It happens with the Audit Office. The body that oversees the accounts of the entire public administration went from having seven members to six in November 2017, following the unsubstituted resignation of Andreu Morillas. But, in addition, three other members have expired and are currently in office.

Ribó, three years of acting

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Although his interim period has not yet reached that of the Judiciary, on February 28, 2022 he will serve three years in office, if he is not replaced before, the Ombudsman. With the law in hand, Rafael Ribó He should have left the position in 2019, after 15 years in the position. The relief process was not even activated due to the evident lack of consensus. His replacement also requires the support of three-fifths of the deputies (81 of 135).

More than 1,000 days are still waiting to be renewed all or part of the members of the Data Protection Advisory Board, the Commission for the Guarantee of the Right of Access to Public Information, the Fiscal Council of Catalonia, the Superior Council of Cooperation and the social councils of the eight Catalan public universities.