The Government continues without electing someone to occupy the vice presidency of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and without renewing the positions of four other councilors of this body, whose mandates expired in 2023 and are not renewable.
The CNMC is a public body subject to parliamentary controlwhich promotes and preserves the proper functioning of all markets, in the interest of consumers and companies.
It exercises its functions through the presidency and the Council, a body made up of ten members who are appointed by the Executive at the proposal of the Ministry of Economy, although the institution is independent of the Government.
Subsequently, the Economic Commission of the Congress of Deputies examines the suitability and possible existence of conflicts of interest of each candidate and approves the appointment.
Article 15 of the current Law 3/2013, of June 4, creating the National Markets and Competition Commission-CNMC, establishes that the mandate of the members of the Council is six years without the possibility of re-election.
Taking this into account and with the information consulted by EFE, the mandate of the CNMC councilors Bernardo Lorenzo and Xabier Ormatxea, elected in September 2017, expired in 2023 and the Government continues without proposing any name to replace them.
Added to this is that the vice president of the CNMC Ángel Torres passed away on August 19, 2023 and since then no one has occupied that position; In addition, two other seats on the CNMC Council that María Ortiz and Pilar Canedo occupied until June and September of that year, respectively, remained vacant in 2023.
Therefore, at the end of 2024, while the organization studies in depth the impact that a merger of BBVA and Sabadell would have, the positions of five members of the CNMC Council are pending renewal. without, apparently, the Executive having made a decision on the matter and with a single meeting of the Council of Ministers before the Christmas break.
In parallel, however, the Government appointed in recent months Governor of the Bank of Spain to José Luis Escrivá and deputy governor to Soledad Núñez; and more recently Carlos San Basilio president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and Paloma Marín vice president.
The CNMC continues to function
Despite the fact that there are five seats on the CNMC Council pending renewalincluding the vice presidency, the institution continues to function and can make management decisions both in the Plenary and in the Chambers.
All members of the CNMC Council make up the Plenary Session, which is headed by the president of the institution, Cani Fernández. However, the counselors are divided into two rooms: one dedicated to competition issues (Competition Chamber) and another for the supervision of regulated sectors (Regulatory Supervision Chamber).
Proof that the CNMC continues with its day-to-day activities is that this month, as publicly announced, it has agreed to rotate two of its counselors between chambers: Pilar Sánchez rotates to the Competition Chamber and María Jesús Martín to the Supervision Chamber. Regulatory.
The internal rules pIt is expected that every December the oldest directors of each room who have not yet done so rotate, explains the CNMC on its own website.
In this way, as of January 2025, the Competition Chamber will be composed of Bernardo Lorenzo and Xabier Ormaetxea -the two directors with expired mandates-, in addition to Pilar Sánchez and the president, Cani Fernández.
While the Regulatory Supervision Room, in which the vice president of the CNMC would have to sit, will be composed in january by Josep María Salas, Carlos Aguilar and María Jesús Martín.
In addition to the rooms, the CNMC has four directions of instruction that depend on the president: Competition, Energy, Telecommunications and Audiovisual Sector, and Transport and Postal Sector. Added to these are the Competition Promotion and Internal Control Departments.
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