Royal Decree 374/2003, of 31 March, of call for local elections and the Assemblies of Ceuta and Melilla, establishes in its article first the convocation of the aforementioned elections for its celebration the next day 25 of May 2003.

On the other hand, the Organic Law 5/1985 of 19 June of the General Electoral Regime, as amended by the Organic Laws 1/1987 of 2 April; 8/1991 of 13 March; 6/1992 of 2 November; 13/1994 of 30 March; 23 March; 1/1997 of 30 May; 3/1998 of 15 June; 8/1999 of 21 April; 6/2002 of 27 June and 1/2003 of 10 March, under Title III of the special provisions for municipal elections, regulates the amounts of the (a) grants to electoral expenditure in Article 193, paragraph 4 of which states that ' the amounts referred to in the Previous paragraphs refer to constant pesetas. By Order of the Ministry of Economy and Finance the updated amounts are fixed within five days of the call. " In accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of Royal Decree 557/2000 of 27 April 2000, of restructuring of the ministerial departments, the reference to the Ministry of Economy and Finance should be understood at the present time. Finance.

The realization of the grants for electoral expenses, when expressed in constant pesetas-an expression that has to be understood today in constant euros-requires the application of the rates of deflation that are determined by the applicable consumer price index in each case.

In its virtue, I have:

First.-The updating of the amounts fixed to subsidise the expenses incurred by the electoral activities, as regulated in Article 193 of the Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, in writing given by the Organic Laws 8/1991 of 13 March and 13/1994 of 30 March will be verified by applying to the quantities mentioned in that article of the corrective deflationary coefficient of the CPI.

Second. The amounts referred to in the preceding paragraph are as follows:

a) Grant of 224.62 euros for each elected councillor.

b) Grant of 0.45 euros for each of the votes obtained for each candidacy, one of whose members, at least, would have been proclaimed Councilmember.

Third. -For the municipal elections, the limit of the electoral expenses will be the one that will be multiplied by 0.09 euros the number of inhabitants corresponding to the population of right of the constituencies where present their candidacies each party, federation, coalition or grouping.

For each province, those who run for elections in at least 50 per 100 of their municipalities will also be able to spend another 124,818.20 euros for each of the provinces in which they meet this condition.

Fourth. -In addition to the preceding paragraphs, the amount of the grant to the parties, federations, coalitions or groupings, of the electoral expenses incurred by direct and personal sending to the voters of envelopes and electoral or propaganda ballots and election publicity, shall conform to the following rules:

(a) EUR 0,18 per voter shall be paid in each of the constituencies in which it has been represented in the Local Corporations concerned, provided that the reference application has submitted lists in the 50 per 100 of the municipalities of more than 10,000 inhabitants of the province concerned and has obtained, at least, representation in 50 per 100 of them.

(b) The subsidised amount shall not be included within the limit provided for in the third subparagraph, provided that the actual performance of the activity referred to in this paragraph has been justified.

Single end disposition.

This Order shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the State.

Madrid, 3 April 2003.

MONTORO ROMERO