MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Tuesday night, the Plenary Session of Congress elected the only nine deputies, one per parliamentary group, who will be authorized to access matters classified as secret, who will receive information on the use of reserved funds and who will be able to control the activities of the National Intelligence Center (CNI).
Specifically, the Reserved Expenses Commission will be formed this term by Miguel Tellado (PP), Patxi López (PSOE), Pepa Millán (Vox), Marta Lois (Sumar), Gabriel Rufián (ERC), Míriam Nogueras (Junts), Mertxe Aizpurua (Bildu), Aitor Esteban (PNV) and Néstor Rego (BNG), who will represent the Mixed Group.
In a secret vote by ballot box, all of them have surpassed the minimum bar to be elected of 176 votes, although the spokespersons of ERC, Junts and Bildu have entered with the minimum (176 fair votes). The most voted have been Lois (Sumar), Rego (BNG) and López (PSOE) with 312, 311 and 310 votes, respectively, while the spokespersons for PP and Sumar have remained at 299.
Until April 2022, that minimum bar was set at 210 and the Chamber was unable to elect deputies with access to official secrets due to crossed vetoes between parliamentary groups. The then president of the Chamber, the socialist Meritxel Batet, approved the resolution that lowered the necessary majority, thus facilitating the entry into this body of the spokespersons of ERC, Junts and Bildu, who then demanded explanations from the Government for the espionage of independentists with the ‘Pegasus’ program.
Like the last legislature, the PP and Vox have expressed this Tuesday their rejection of the independentists accessing official secrets and have blamed the PSOE for allowing it, ensuring that it is “another payment” for the continuity of Pedro Sánchez at the head of the Government.
According to the legislation, the so-called Reserved Expenses Commission is responsible for exercising parliamentary control of the activities of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the use of the reserved funds by the Ministries that have been assigned items of this type; Interior, Foreign, Defense and the CNI, whose heads must present reports every six months.
