MEETING WITH CUCA GAMARRA
On Tuesday the 13th, Member of the European Parliament Javier Zarzalejos held a working meeting with Cuca Gamarra, Deputy Secretary for Institutional Regeneration of the People’s Party, focused on the main challenges of the European agenda in the areas of freedoms, justice, and home affairs. Zarzalejos took part in the meeting in his capacity as Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament.
During the meeting, numerous issues directly related to the work of the LIBE Committee were addressed, with particular attention to the state of the rule of law. Zarzalejos outlined the role played by the European Parliament in monitoring the serious institutional situation currently affecting Spain and announced that next February a mission from the LIBE Committee’s Rule of Law Monitoring Group will travel to Spain to assess the situation of the rule of law on the ground.
In this context, the difficult situation facing the Congress of Deputies was also analyzed, including initiatives originating in the Senate that have been blocked by the Presidency of the Chamber, as well as the progressive deterioration of the legislative process. During the meeting, emphasis was placed on the increasingly frequent use of royal decree-laws and urgent procedures, a practice that weakens parliamentary debate and erodes the quality of democracy.
The discussion also made it possible to review several legislative files on which Zarzalejos is currently working. Among them was the Victims’ Rights Directive, whose text expressly condemns the glorification of crimes, in a clear reference to practices such as ongi etorris. Likewise, the regulation on online sexual abuse was addressed, with discussion of the risks that certain dynamics of social media may pose to minors and of various measures being debated at European level to address them.
Lastly, the meeting served to analyze the European Pact on Migration and Asylum and the need to complete the migration package with the adoption of the Returns Regulation. In this regard, it was highlighted that the migration policy of the Spanish Government is at odds with the position of the other twenty-six Member States of the European Union, which reinforces the importance of moving towards an effective and coherent common framework.