Spanish Government to bring Commissioner for National Transition before Constitutional Court

Barcelona (ACN).- The Spanish Council of Ministers agreed on Friday to bring before Spain’s Constitutional Court (TC) the 16/2015 decree approved by the Catalan Government. The decree – adopted last February –- established the Commissioner for National Transition, a position bestowed upon Catalan Jurist Carles Viver Pi-Sunyer. The Spanish Government's legal action also targets the Executive Plans for the creation of state structures and the plan for strategic infrastructure that the Commissioner is in charge of developing, in addition to "all the arrangements and actions linked to this decree and these plans, or in line with their purpose". The Spanish Executive has also filed an appeal to the TC in order to automatically suspend both the decree and the plans, according to Article 161.2 of the Spanish Constitution.

The decision was announced by Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, during a press conference after the Spanish Cabinet meeting For the Spanish Government, the 16/2015 decree violates a series of fundamental principles such as: "the national sovereignty which resides in the entire Spanish people, the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the compliance to the Constitution and all other legal provisions by all citizens and public authorities and the procedure of constitutional reform".

The legal action that the Spanish Government intends to take does not equate to an appeal against the alleged unconstitutionality of an act. Indeed, its target is a decree (and not a law), together with the accompanying plans. Therefore, the most appropriate formula is, according to the Spanish Executive, to bring a so-called 'conflict of jurisdiction' between the Spanish State and Catalonia before Spain's Constitutional Court.

If Spain's TC accepts the appeal, the activities of the Commissioner will be suspended

However, according to Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, once the Constitutional Court accepts the appeal filed by the central Government and the request to automatically suspend the decree and the plans, it will be "as if the Commissioner does not exist anymore" because its activities will be automatically arrested.

The appeal against other aspects, such as the plans for the preparation of state structures and strategic infrastructure, is in line with the previous constitutional appeal filed by the Spanish Government in June against the budget bill of the Catalan Government for 2015 and the complementary law on fiscal measures.

Thus, according to Sáenz de Santamaría, the Spanish Government challenges "all decisions taken by the Catalan Government and the Catalan Parliament that aim to advance the process of building state structures". The Spanish Government grounds the conflict of jurisdiction that it intends to bring before the TC on the fact that the 16/2015 decree attributes to the Commissioner tasks such as "the promotion, coordination and implementation of measures necessary to the completion of the national transition process and the constitution of the state structures".

With this decree, according to the Spanish Government, the Government is "taking steps towards a separation from Spain", attributing to the Commissioner "functions which would pertain to the central State within the territory of Catalonia or designed to plan how these competencies will be assumed by the Catalan Government".

Catalan Government's actions point towards a unilateral declaration of independence

For the Spanish Executive, the Catalan Government cannot justify its actions, in the framework of a potential revision of the Constitution "as neither the content nor the purpose of these measures are aimed at a reform process within the framework of the Constitution. On the contrary, they point towards a unilateral declaration of independence".

Sáenz de Santamaría said that the creation of state structures by the Catalan Government also aims to "assume powers pertaining to the central State", therefore representing a "clearly unconstitutional act". According to the Spanish Executive, the 16/2015 decree "violates the powers of the Spanish State as a whole, and in particular in a series of fields such as: international relations, public finance, customs and tariff regulations, coordination of economic activity, ports, airports, railways and transportation, communications, postal service and telecommunications".