The PSOE will challenge the decree law on administrative simplification approved by the Andalusian government on February 6th and hastily validated by the Parliament on the 21st of that month. The challenge, to be filed at the end of the week, will be signed by 50 socialist senators who believe there are no reasons of urgent and extraordinary need, as stipulated by the Constitution and the Autonomy Statute. Additionally, the central government has raised a dispute of competences regarding article 117 of the mega-decree that affects the state Land Law. This discrepancy is being negotiated in the Joint Cooperation Commission Junta-State and is a preliminary step to filing a lawsuit with the high court if no agreement is reached.
During the almost two years of this term, the autonomous government led by Juan Manuel Moreno has approved a total of 29 decree laws compared to 11 ordinary laws. According to Josele Aguilar, the Secretary of Political Communication for the PSOE and deputy spokesperson of the regional executive, this is an “unacceptable abuse” of a procedure meant for exceptional cases. The PSOE argues that the Andalusian government took a year and a half from announcing the simplification decree to its approval, therefore there are no arguments for urgent and extraordinary need. They also argue that the measure is not about simplification but rather about modifying regulatory norms, against the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court.
The challenge will be signed by the jurist and former socialist minister Tomás de la Quadra-Salcedo. The PSOE argues that the Andalusian government took a long time to pass the decree law, from September 2022 to February 2024, so there are no reasons for urgent and extraordinary need. The super-decree changes 176 norms at once, affecting various productive sectors and emphasizing the responsible declaration and positive administrative silence. Comisiones Obreras, a labor union, highlighted several negative aspects of the decree, including changes to income thresholds for recipients of protected housing, authorization for private urban entities to approve constructions instead of government officials, and elimination of sectorial authorizations in the environmental process among others.
Since its approval, the Andalusian government has published four corrections in the Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía (BOJA) due to errors. Just before its validation in the Parliament, an agreement was reached to remove the provision to modify the Andalusian Forestry Law, which would have allowed for the conversion of forest lands to agricultural lands and potentially granted amnesty to illegal strawberry farmers in the Doñana area. Aguilar is confident that the Constitutional Court will overturn the simplification law, which he believes creates legal uncertainty. Despite their criticism of the government for legislating quickly, the PSOE did not challenge the decree law on salary increases for high-ranking officials, which was passed shortly after the Budget with their abstention.
The Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Sanz, has labeled the PSOE’s appeal to the Constitutional Court as a “political” move and applauds that only one discrepancy has been found by the central government in the 700 pages of the decree law. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has raised a question of constitutionality regarding the modification to the Andalusian Land Sustainability Law. This change allows for a “responsible declaration” relating to earth movements and excavations in urban land not located in an Archaeological Zone, which the State questions in terms of compatibility with the national Land Law. Negotiations are ongoing between both governments in the Joint Cooperation Commission, and the deadline for a lawsuit to the Constitutional Court will be extended by six months if no agreement is reached.
