This Tuesday, Congress rejected the maneuver initiated by the PP to delay the approval of the law on criminal records which validates the sentences of Spaniards accumulated in other EU countries. The president of the Upper House, Pedro Rollán, considered the bill vetoed this Monday and ordered that it be returned to Congress, although the amendments were not registered in deadlines and that the regulations stipulate in these cases that the text is automatically approved. .
The progressive majority of the Lower House relied this Tuesday on a lawyers’ report to reject the PP movement and send the law directly to the Official State Gazette.
“The Council of Congress, after analyzing the recommendations of the Legal Services of the Chamber, has decided that it is responsible for compliance with regulated procedures and includes Organic Law 7/2014 on the exchange of information on the criminal record and the examination of criminal judicial decisions as validated. . in the European Union, which will be sent to the BOE for publication,” report parliamentary sources.
The Senate yesterday tackled the handling of a controversial law after learning its approval could benefit ETA prisoners who had served part of their sentences in other EU countries. The PP and Vox had voted in favor of this law during the plenary session of Congress, but after the effects that the text could have had, both parties denounced deception on the part of the government. Once the deadline for amendments in the Upper House passed, the PP only had to reject it as a last movement without effect, because in these cases if there are no amendments or veto , the senatorial process is mere testimony. The law would be sent to the BOE after Monday’s vote.
However, Rollán, in an unprecedented interpretation of the rule, ruled that voting against it amounted to a veto and ordered the rule sent back to Congress. The maneuver even surprised the House services. At the start of the session, the communications department distributed to journalists an explanatory document on what would happen in the morning. The last page expressly stated that Rollán would say: “Without prejudice to the result of the vote, given that the Senate did not oppose a veto nor introduce amendments in the terms established in Article 90 of the Constitution, the draft Constitution is definitively approved. by the law of the Cortes Générales.
But Rollán changed his plans and said: “After rejecting the organic bill that modifies Organic Law 7/2014 of November 12 on the exchange of information on the criminal record and the review of criminal judicial decisions in the European Union for its adaptation to the regulations of the European Union on the European Criminal Records Information System, by an absolute majority of the Senate, which is required by Article 90, second paragraph, of the Constitution, to oppose the veto in accordance with article 106 of the Internal Rules, it must be understood that the plenary of the Senate vetoed the text.
