The Economy, Commerce and Digital Transformation Commission of the Congress of Deputies gave its approval this Wednesday to the five candidates proposed by the Government for the renewal of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). This concludes the renewal of the regulatory bodies and puts an end to more than a year of interim status at the institution’s plenary session.
The majority of the Lower House has ratified the appointments, proposed on December 23 by the Council of Ministers without the approval of the PP, of four councilors and the vice president, the audiovisual sector expert Ángel García Castillejo.
The organization that ensures free competition and regulates markets has been in a very precarious situation for months. Two councilors had expired since 2023 and there were three vacant positions, including the vice presidency, after the death of Ángel Torres in the summer of that year.
The appointments have gone ahead in most cases with the rejection of Vox and the abstention of the PP, which has spoken of “colonization” of the institutions and has been especially harsh in its criticism of García Castillejo and the counselor Pere Soler, linked to the Catalan independence movement.
The spokesperson for the PP, Tristana Moralejo (a party that placed in the CNMC as soon as it was created a former judge whom it even appointed as a member of the board of directors of the formation), has assured that the candidate for vice president, current director of RTVE, does not has “training, no experience, no independence.”
García Castillejo, former director and former advisor of the defunct Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT), advisor in the IU-ICV Congress in the 90s or in the Secretary of State for Telecommunications during the time of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has defended that Independence is something “that is demonstrated by walking” and in its case it is “more than endorsed.” And he has assured that the criticisms of the popular are based on “pamphlets” disseminating “hoaxes and fake news.”
In the case of Soler, a former CiU councilor who was director of the Mossos de Escuadra until the independence referendum of 2017 and directed the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO), although “for a short time”, he has admitted that his political activity can raise “doubts”, but he has defended that he has “always” worked in the public sector “in the interest of everyone and for everyone.”
He has indicated that, because he did not consider it relevant for this position, he did not include in the resume that he sent to the Government his time at the head of the Mossos in 2017, when tweets came to light in which he stated that the Spaniards gave him “pity.” A lawyer specializing in commercial law, Soler has stressed that “it is difficult to find a profile in our State or at the European level who is an expert in all the matters regulated” by the CNMC, which is why he has applied to begin his activity in the Competition and not in Regulation.
The harshest in its criticism has been Vox, which has been left alone asking for a veto from the candidates. Its spokesman, Pablo Sáez, has charged against what he has described as a “new demonstration” of the “totalitarian drift” of the Government, with the “blackmail of the separatist parties” that are capable of imposing their candidates with a “minimal representation.” .
The candidate Rafael Iturriaga, former counselor of the Court of Accounts of Euskadi or the Basque Competition Authority and former deputy counselor in the Basque Government, has indicated that in his entire career in the public sector, he has “never” received instructions from any politician; He has stated that markets, without regulation, “tend towards monopoly”, because “businessmen want to win”, and has welcomed the fact that complaints are being filed against companies for setting up cartels.
“I cannot appear before you pretending to know everything,” he acknowledged, given the very broad portfolio of matters supervised by the CNMC, created by the PP Government in 2013. Iturriaga has described being a director of the CNMC as a “great honor” and has defined himself as “son of the Transition.” He has stressed that neither he nor any member of his family has “the slightest conflict of interest” to serve as a director.
Also from Euskadi comes the energy expert Enrique Monasterio, an industrial engineer who has developed his career at the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), where he is currently Director of Development and Innovation. He explained to the PP spokesperson that he has “never” had any political connection and has stressed that he will recuse himself from any decision that may affect the EVE.
When reviewing his resume, he recalled that with EVE he established years ago the first charging vehicle management company in Spain; has pointed out that biogas and “especially hydrogen” are going to have a presence “that we did not foresee for a long time”, that Spain is going to a system “close to 100% renewable” in a short time, and has defined himself as “a faithful believer in the importance of regulation” to address “with guarantees” the challenges that Spain faces in terms of energy.
The fifth ratified candidate is María Vidales Picazo, current director of the Competition Promotion Department at the CNMC, in which she has participated in studies such as the evaluation of the remuneration of bank deposits.
Doctor in Economics and member of the senior body of Commercial Technicians and State Economists, she has cited as the first challenge facing the CNMC the recovery of the National Energy Commission (CNE), whose bill must be processed by Congress in the coming months. , along with others such as the use of artificial intelligence in the detection of anti-competitive practices.
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