Abstract
The constitutional design of the system of territorial autonomy and its practical development have been regarded, for over 25 years, as a great success. A quarter of a Century into the autonomous process, there was growing criticism of the defects of the system of territorial autonomy, reinforcing the claims of Basque and Catalan nationalisms, who considered the autonomy of their territories to be insufficient. There was call for reform. The political difficulties with regard to reform of the Constitution led to contemplation of reform of the territorial system via reform of the statutes of Autonomy, a process that was encouraged, above all, by Catalonia. The conviction that this was possible – and the satisfaction produced by being able to achieve this in this way, handing the initiative to the territories - led to the approval of various Statutes, the most significant being that of Catalonia (2006). The Constitutional Court Ruling on this Statute confounded the expectations born of this reform. The problems of the system, evident in their functioning over more than thirty years, remain present; and political pressure, particularly from the majority of political formations in Catalonia, continues to grow apace. The political conflict has reached an extreme situation, taking the form in Catalonia of the demand for a referendum on independence. In this situation, the constitutional reform of the system of territorial autonomy should be addressed without further delay. The path which this reform should follow is that of federalism, understood as the natural development of the process that the system of territorial autonomy has followed for over thirty years, in such a way that is developed via observation of the solutions offered by Western federal systems. In the Spanish political situation, however, advancing in this direction does not appear to be an easy task.
Research Group of the Basque University System IT509-10. This paper is part of the Research Project DER 2010-20850, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. It was written during the author’s stay at Clare Hall College and at the Centre for Public Law, in the Faculty of Law of University of Cambridge (UK), in the year 2011–2012, thanks to the sabbatical leave granted by UPV/EHU and the aid provided by the Ministry of Education—of the Spanish Government. Many thanks to Prof. John Bell and to Dr. Anat Scolnicov for their support during my sabbatical stay at the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge.
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Notes
- 1.
The AC created via Art. 143 SC could only assume the competences established in Art. 148.1 SC and would only be able to extend them, within the limit established in the list of State competences (Art. 149.1 SC), by means of the reform of its Statute, after a minimum of 5 years (Art. 148.2 SC).
- 2.
The AC created by Art. 151 SC could assume, directly, all the competences not reserved for the State in Art. 149.1 SC.
- 3.
Those “territories which in the past had approved by plebiscite projects for Statutes of autonomy and have, at the time of adopting this Constitution, provisional autonomous systems” could establish themselves as Autonomous Community through the simple agreement of this provisional autonomous body. These are the territories known, not without objection, as “historic nationalities.”
- 4.
According to the Basque Parliament’s “Report on statutory development” of 1 July 1993, there were 54 competences. Meanwhile, Saura (2005), then a Member of the Catalan Government, numbered as “over ninety” the competences still to be transferred to Catalonia.
- 5.
This explains the references to such high numbers of competences still to be transferred, superior, by a considerable degree, to the list of competences contained in the SA.
- 6.
Organic Law 8/1980, of September 22, of Financing of the Autonomous Communities (LOFCA).
- 7.
The three profound reforms of the LOFCA were undertaken via Organic Law 3/1996, of December 27; Organic Law 7/2001, of December 27; and Organic Law 3/2009, of December 18.
- 8.
The roots of this system are to be found in the process of repealing the Fueros (Charters) of Navarra and the Basque Country at the end of the Carlist Wars, during the nineteenth century. The 1978 Constitution recognised this singular character in the First Additional Provision, which “shelters and protects the historical rights of the ‘territorios forales’ (territories ruled by Fueros)”, whose “general update” will be undertaken “within the framework of the Constitution and the Statutes of Autonomy” (Corcuera Atienza and García Herrera 2002). Upon these bases, the system of Economic Agreement has been developed (Zubiri 2000; López Basaguren 2005).
- 9.
According to the analysis by de la Fuente, the problem lies not so much in the system of Economic Agreement, as in a “benevolent” calculation of the Basque Country’s contribution to State expenditure, which is based on a low valuation of the State costs not assumed by the Basque Country and on the calculation of the VAT adjustment, which employs obsolete figures for the ratios reflecting the preponderance of the Basque Country in national consumption and in the base for the tax. The combined effect of both factors is a contribution that is considerably lower than that which corresponds; this difference amounted to 6.21 % of the GDP of the Basque Country in 2002 and 6.89 % in 2007.
- 10.
The political impossibility of constitutional reform was evidenced by the proposal for constitutional reform presented by the Government of the Socialist Party. On 4 March 2005, it agreed to request from the Council of State, in its role as consultative organ, a Report on a proposal for constitutional reform which, with regard to the autonomous system, proposed the inclusion in the Constitution of the denomination of the AC and the reform of the Senate. The Council of State Report was approved on 16 February 2006 (www.consejo-estado.es/bases.htm) and was the object of an important academic debate (Consejo de Estado 2006). However, it never had the opportunity to prosper.
- 11.
The Basque Country presented the first proposal for a new SA, which was rejected by the Lower House (1.02.2005); this was a proposed rupture, based upon what Basque nationalism called the “right to decide.” During two terms in office (2004–2008 and 2008–2011) the new SA of Valencia, Catalonia, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, Aragón, Castilla-León and Extremadura have been approved. The Canary Islands and Castilla-La Mancha withdrew their proposals during processing in the Lower House because of differences over the required modifications. Navarra also reformed its particular “SA” via OL 7/2010, of October 27. No reform proposals have been put forward by the AC of Galicia and five uni-provincial AC (Cantabria, La Rioja, Murcia, Asturias and Madrid).
- 12.
Art. 149.3 SC includes a clause of residual attribution of competences to the State, to whom will correspond all competences that—not being reserved for the State in Art. 149.1 SC—the SA does not attribute to the AC.
- 13.
The representatives of the territory present the project to the Lower House; a delegation of the representatives of the proposing territory and a Commission from the House agree upon the definitive text, which is submitted to referendum in the territory and, if approved, will be presented to Parliament for ratification as Organic Law.
- 14.
This aspect is complemented with what is included in Art. 28.2 OLCC, referring to Organic Laws as components of the constitutional block; in the case of the SA, it involves their configuration—in their status as “basic institutional law” of the AC (Art. 147.1 SC)—as parameter of constitutionality of the laws of the AC.
- 15.
However, the PP did participate in the proposal to reform the SA of Andalusia, which contained a significant number of similar provisions to those of the SA of Catalonia that were contested before the CC. Appeals were also lodged against some provisions of the SA of Catalonia by the Ombudsman and the AC of La Rioja, Murcia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and Aragón.
- 16.
The other appeals against the SA of Catalonia were resolved by CCR 46 and 47/2010, of September 8, 48/2010, September 9, 49/2010, September 29 and 137 and 138/2010, of December 16.
- 17.
Admittedly, apart from other elements of a diverse nature, there was a third central element in the reform of the SA of Catalonia: the elements of the national status of Catalonia. The indirect reference to the national identity of Catalonia and, above all, the regulation of Catalan as “preferential” language, were also the object of declarations of unconstitutionality and of significant references to interpretation consistent with the Constitution, which nullified the pretensions of reform (López Basaguren 2011b).
- 18.
In relation to this provision, the CC also ruled as unconstitutional Art. 120.2, on Savings Banks, in which it stated that basic state laws in this area would establish “principles, rules and minimum standards” and attributed to Catalonia some aspects of the area, and Art. 126.2, on other credit institutions, which referred to “the principles, rules and minimum standards established in basic state laws.”
- 19.
The SAC also includes a third Additional Provision, regarding investments and infrastructures, according to which the State’s investment in Catalonia in infrastructures, excluding the Interterritorial Compensation Fund “will be in line with the relative participation of the GDP of Catalonia in relation to the GDP of the State for a period of seven years”, which can also be used “for the elimination of tolls or construction of alternative highways.” The CC has declared, in any case, that this provision “should be interpreted in the sense that it does not bind the State in the definition of its investment policy, or undermine the absolute freedom of Parliament to decide upon the existence and quantity of these investments” (LB 13).
- 20.
On 27 September 2011, the Parliament approved the reform of Art. 135 of the Constitution, which introduced the requirements for budgetary stability. The reform was undertaken without prior debate and was privately agreed upon by the (then) President of the Government and the Leader of the Opposition. Previously, Art. 13 of the Constitution was reformed to incorporate the right of foreigners to passive vote in local elections, as a consequence of the ratification of the EU Treaty (Maastricht 1992).
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López-Basaguren, A. (2013). Current Issues Around Territorial Autonomy in Spain. In: López Basaguren, A., Escajedo San Epifanio, L. (eds) The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_27
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