Bill to remove powers added to the Constitutional Court in 2015

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The bill, introduced by the Basque Parliamentary Group (EAJ-PNV), would undo two 2015 reforms of the Constitutional Court's law and return to the situation before those reforms.
2. It would remove the prior constitutionality review, which allowed a draft reform of a Statute of Autonomy to be brought before the Court before its approval. The bill argues that this prior review politicizes the Court and interferes with Parliament's work.
3. It would eliminate the enforcement mechanisms for the Court's rulings introduced by Organic Law 15/2015, such as suspending non-compliant authorities or public employees, or handing substitute enforcement to the Government. The bill argues these measures are disguised penalties and break the balance of powers.
4. It would amend several articles of the Court's law: Title VI BIS and Article 79 would be deleted, and Articles 80, 87, 92 and 95.4 would be rewritten, returning to their wording before 2015.
5. The Court could still impose coercive fines of €600 to €3,000 on anyone who fails to comply with its orders, and repeat them until compliance. The limits of these fines could be revised by ordinary law at any time.
6. The law would enter into force the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Who it affects

• Autonomous Communities reforming their Statutes: Would see prior review of their Statute reform drafts removed and regain the normal approval process with a referendum.
• Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional): Would lose the power to suspend authorities and public employees or hand substitute enforcement of its rulings to the Government.
• Authorities and public employees, including officials with special jurisdiction (aforados): Could no longer be suspended by the Court for failing to comply with its rulings; they would remain subject to their own liability regimes.
• Government and the Spanish Parliament (Cortes Generales): Would regain a leading role in enforcing the Court's rulings through dialogue among institutions.
• Anyone who fails to comply with the Court's orders: Could face coercive fines of €600 to €3,000 for failing to comply with the Court's orders.

Words worth knowing

Recurso previo de inconstitucionalidad

Prior constitutionality review: it allowed a draft organic law on a Statute of Autonomy to be brought before the Constitutional Court before approval, so it could decide whether it fit the Constitution.

Estatuto de Autonomía

Statute of Autonomy: the basic law of each Autonomous Community, passed by Parliament and ratified by referendum.

Multas coercitivas

Coercive fines: repeatable fines imposed to pressure someone into complying with an order, not to punish harm.

Aforamiento

Special protection under which certain officials (deputies, senators, Government members) can only be tried by specific courts.

Ejecución sustitutoria

Substitute enforcement: the Government itself carries out what another body was supposed to do and did not do.

It summarizes the text as it was introduced. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries