The Minister of Justice, Local Administration, and Public Function, José Antonio Nieto, has expressed his regret that the Ministry of Justice has rejected addressing the funding of the Public Service Efficiency Law in the Sectorial Conference, convened in Barcelona, as requested by several autonomous communities. «They tell us it has no cost and will generate savings,» Nieto said, although the Junta estimates that only the first phase of the law, which in Andalucia requires the transformation of 70 out of the 85 judicial districts before July 1, will amount to 60 million euros between the new positions of civil servants to be created, the reorganization of staff to adapt to the trial courts, or the construction work in the facilities to restructure the spaces.
Nieto has lamented that due to the lack of agreement for the agenda to include, among other points to be voted on, the approval of funding for the law, several regional councilors have refused to participate in the meeting and have insisted on asking the Government to reconsider. «They tell us it has no cost and will generate savings, if that is the case, why is the Ministry afraid to take it on and then the autonomous communities will have no objection?» he emphasized.
In this regard, he criticized the mention of the allocation of 325 million to the communities when these funds, approved in 2021, came from the European Union and «reached all ministries and were distributed by obligation to the autonomous communities.» Nieto recalled that these funds are being used for Justice digitization projects that «have nothing to do with Efficiency Law,» such as the implementation of the Dicireg system in Civil Registries.
«We are jeopardizing the operation and quality of the public Justice service at a time when it is under pressure and in a critical situation,» said Nieto, expressing his wish that «hopefully this same afternoon we could meet with minimal guarantee and less distrust than we have perceived from the Ministry to work together, which is what we want, but in a relationship of equality and co-governance.»
The Andalusian Justice system has a volume almost equivalent to the communities that do not have transferred competences, the so-called Ministry territory. It has 85 judicial districts, 744 individual bodies that will be consolidated into trial courts, 700 peace courts that will be transformed into Municipal Justice Offices, almost 10,000 civil servants, 550 prosecutors, and about 700 LAJ.
The Efficiency Law requires adapting 70 of the 85 judicial districts before July 1, another three by October 1, and the 12 with the most bodies (those of the eight capitals and large cities) by December 31. In addition, on April 3, the obligation to try to resolve civil and commercial disputes before filing a lawsuit came into force, which will require covering the expenses generated by these procedures for legal aid attorneys. Andalusia is the only community that has been covering these costs since January 1, 2024, with 400 euros per case, but only when an agreement is reached, as mediation was voluntary until now. Now, given the obligation to attempt mediation beforehand, the Junta will also have to bear the costs if an agreement cannot be reached, when this is carried out by a legal aid attorney.
A procedural requirement that Andalusians can process through the Information Points for Mediation in Andalusia (PIMA), which have been in existence since 2021, while the implementation of the Public Civil and Commercial Mediation Service (SEMCA) is being finalized. Last year, the Criminal Mediation Service (SEMPA) was launched to promote this alternative dispute resolution method.
Likewise, the Junta has launched a Judicial Infrastructure Plan 2023-2030 that will mobilize 1.5 billion euros to update the facilities of 100% of the judicial districts, with the construction of new buildings and the expansion or renovation of existing ones, adapting all of them to the spatial reorganization that the transformation of the Justice system envisaged in the Efficiency Law implies.
Regarding the restructuring of the civil servant staff in accordance with the new Judicial Officer model, in the first phase of law implementation, 80 additional civil servant positions will be created which, along with the salary supplements that will accompany new positions assuming new functions, represent an annual cost of 3.5 million.
All this implies a budgetary effort that the Andalusian Government of Juanma Moreno is assuming alone to implement the reform envisaged in the state law, published in January with the regional budgets already approved, following the timetable set by the Ministry with very tight deadlines.
