The Minister of Justice, Local Administration and Public Function, José Antonio Nieto, has expressed in the Parliament Plenary the concern of the Andalusian Government about the «overload» that will entail for the Violence against Women courts assuming competences on sexual offenses, without the State providing resources to reinforce these bodies. «The Gender Violence judges are alerting about this overload and it worries us because we do not want the attention to victims to be reduced in the slightest,» he pointed out.
The Minister lamented in Parliament that the central government does not provide the necessary means for these courts to face these new competences, included in the Law of Efficiency of the Public Service of Justice published last January. In order to deal with this situation, Nieto has indicated, «we need the Government to do justice; what we do not need is for them to commit injustices like the one in the bilateral commission with Catalonia, where the contribution of 60 new judges is agreed upon, sacrificing those committed to Andalusia, requested at the time», which would mean almost 80 more positions in our community, among judges and magistrates.
In this sense, José Antonio Nieto recalled that the Ministry of Justice reached a consensus with the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) on a list of urgent needs for new judicial units in the community for this year, estimated at 56 new courts and 15 magistrate positions. The Ministry of Justice refused their creation, citing budgetary constraints and the implementation of the Efficiency Law, which, in addition to granting more competences to the Violence against Women courts, will transform the single-judge courts into courts of first instance, that is, collegiate bodies.
It is, therefore, a significant reform that, according to the minister, does not have economic resources from the State to help the communities deploy the transferred competences, nor a very demanding implementation schedule, as it has not been agreed upon with them. In fact, in Andalusia, 70 of the 85 judicial districts must be adapted to the new standard by July 1st, which involves the rearrangement of physical spaces in judicial headquarters and staffing: by October 31st, three other judicial districts will be adapted, and before December 31st, the 12 largest ones, including those of the eight provincial capitals.