The Council of Ministers, at its meeting of 4 April 1997, adopted an Agreement aimed at promoting the progressive establishment of an intercom-communicated system of registers between the General Administration of the State, the General Administration of of the Autonomous Communities and the entities that make up the Local Administration.

The aforementioned agreement allows for formalization between the State and the Autonomous Communities of collaboration agreements to which the local entities of the corresponding territorial scope can join. These agreements, once signed, will allow citizens to present in the registers of the local administrations that they adhere to the same requests, writings and communications that they direct to the General Administration of the State as to that of the Autonomous Community in question.

Thus, a line of action already begun with the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 23 February 1996, under which bilateral agreements have been formalized between the State and numerous entities, has been improved. (a) local authorities, whose capacity to achieve greater accessibility of the administration to the citizen has been demonstrated. The new instruments of collaboration will contribute to achieving the objective indicated with much greater effectiveness, since they represent the beginning of a process of intercommunication of the registers of all the Public Administrations and of conversion of those belonging to the local authorities, in genuine "points of single contact" for access to all public services and services, irrespective of whether the competent authority is in each case.

The decision taken by the Council of Ministers is of obvious interest to the public and to the other public administrations, which advises their maximum dissemination, by publishing them in the Official Journal of the European Union. Status ".

Therefore, this Secretary of State for Public Administration, resolves:

To have the publication in the "Official State Gazette" of the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 4 April 1997, for the progressive implementation of an intercommunicated system of registers between the General Administration of the State, the Administrations of the Autonomous Communities and the entities that make up the Local Administration.

Madrid, April 7, 1997. -Secretary of State Francisco Villar Garcia-Moreno.

Agreement of 4 April 1997 of the Council of Ministers for the progressive implementation of a system intercommunicated between the General Administration of the State, the Administrations of the Autonomous Communities and the entities that integrate the Local Administration

The Government of the Nation is convinced that in a state characterized by a complex territorial organization, in which various public administrations coexist, the effectiveness of the actions that each one of It is necessary to improve the quality of public services and the relationship with citizens depends, to a great extent, on the participation and involvement of the other administrations.

Such participation and involvement is a necessity which, in addition to being obliged by the constitutional mandate of the cooperation between public authorities, responds to the coincidence in a series of objectives that pursue all the Public administrations and which can be summarized in the expression of two complementary principles: the transparency of administrative activity and the participation of citizens.

Both principles are the translation of the model of self-administration of a democratic state, characterized by the role of the citizen, not only as a passive recipient of public services in their status as a recipient or user of the same, but also as a co-participant and active protagonist in their gestation and in the totality of the administrative activity.

in view of the effective achievement of these principles, the relevant role for the citizen is to be highlighted as local authorities, as administrations which, due to their immediacy to the citizen, constitute his closest and even familiar reference. Special mention must be made, in this regard, of the multitude of small municipalities that appear before a large section of the population of our country as the only easily accessible public power.

In view of these considerations, the Government of the Nation has been developing for months a project, called a "one-stop shop", in which using the instruments offered by the current regulations, it has been formalizing numerous agreements with local authorities which are intended to enable citizens to submit applications, written and communications to the General Administration of the State in the registers of those entities. This has been achieved in order to facilitate the relations with the General Administration of the State of a good number of citizens who previously had to face displacements, expenses and inconvenience to carry out any management or process in the state agencies.

Especially relevant is that such achievements have been achieved, at a time of necessary austerity in public spending, without any impact on budgetary appropriations. To this end, the provisions of Law 30/1992, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure have been made operational: the conventions, as an instrument of interadministrative collaboration, and the Regulation of the places of presentation of documents contained in Article 38 of the said legal text.

Public Administration records constitute the true "gateways" of citizens to the Administration, as far as the citizens present their requests, writings or communications from the public. any type. For these purposes, Article 38 of Law 30/1992 changed the situation above and becomes the basis for the 'one-stop-shop' project. In the previous situation-Law of Administrative Procedure 1958-the citizen could only submit his applications, writings and communications in the records of the administrative bodies to which those requests, written or communications were addressed, and only if the requests, writings and communications were addressed to the AGE, also in the records of the Government Delegations and Civil Governments.

The main feature of the regulation of Article 38.4.b) of Law 30/1992 is the extension of places where the citizen can present the documents he directs to any administration, thus facilitating relations with these.

Thus, the citizen is allowed to submit applications, written and communications to any Public Administration in the records of any organ of the AGE, in the records of any organ of any Community Autonomic and, finally, if convention was previously formalized, in the records of a local entity. They can therefore be presented to the local authority which has formalised the agreement of documents addressed to the administration with which the Convention has signed the Convention. This way, which is carried out by the Government as a "one-stop-shop" project, allows a progressive implementation of the intercom-record system of registers-the final objective of Law 30/1992-with the gradual incorporation of local entities depending on their management capabilities and resources.

The undisputed success of the project, with close to two hundred agreements already signed and an ever-growing demand, has raised the need to redirect its development in a four-fold perspective to which it will serve This Agreement is based.

First of all, making it possible to participate simultaneously in the project of the Autonomous Communities. As is evident, the "one-stop shop" project will achieve its objectives of service to the citizen more effectively if, by means of a single instrument, the registers of the local authorities are enabled for the receipt of the documents that the citizens are not only directed to the AGE, but also to their own autonomic administration.

Secondly, seeking the normalization of the entire process, understanding the acceptance by the three existing administrative levels-state, regional and local-of uniform criteria for the operation of the intercommunicated system of records being built.

Finally, laying the foundations of what in the future will constitute not only an intercommunicated registration system, but also a computerized registration system according to standards and standards of normalization that necessarily have to be agreed between the administrations involved to avoid incompatibilities that make it more difficult or more costly to achieve the ultimate goal of the project: real time, regardless of where the present is.

In short, the experiences gained advise on the extension of the Agreement of 23 February 1996-which served as the initial platform for the project-to enable new instruments to meet the needs and requirements coming up.

Consequently, the Council of Ministers agrees:

First. Framework Convention with Autonomous Communities. -In the exercise of the powers conferred on it by the current regulations, the Minister of Public Administration, representing the Government of the Nation, will be able to negotiate and formalize with the government of the Autonomous Communities, collaboration agreements with a double object.

On the one hand, the determination of measures and instruments of collaboration that allow a coordinated process of implementation of an intercommunicated system of administrative registers; the exchange of databases and instruments for information and attention to the citizen of the respective administrations, and the simplification and integration of administrative procedures and procedures involving the authorities involved.

On the other hand, the establishment of a general framework of obligations to permit, in accordance with the provisions of Article 38.4.b) of Law 30/1992, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Procedure Common Administrative Board, which the public may submit, in the registers of the local authorities which voluntarily adhere to the conventions, applications, letters and communications which they address to the bodies and bodies governed by public law General Administration of the State and the Administration of the relevant Community Autonomous.

Second. Accession of local authorities to the framework agreements.-The conventions referred to in the previous paragraph shall provide for an instrument for the accession of the local authorities to the local authorities of the territorial scope of the corresponding Autonomous Community. that they so request. In all cases, the accessions will be conditional on the verification of compliance by the local authorities with a minimum of conditions regarding the provision of means and management capacity; verification to be entrusted to a commission mixed, composed of representatives of the General Administration of the State and the corresponding Autonomous Administration.

Third. Uniformity in the application of the conventions.-The conventions to be formalized shall, in respect of the rules in force, establish common criteria for the application of the obligations arising therefrom, in particular as regards the issue of receipts, sealed copies and certified copies.

Fourth. Computerisation and interconnection of registers. -Conventions shall establish the commitment and the instruments that are necessary to ensure the compatibility of the requirements, parameters and standards under which they are installed, where appropriate, the records of the administrations involved in computer support, ensuring the possibility of interconnection and transmission of data and documents.

Fifth. Agreements in force between the General Administration of the State and local authorities. -In the framework agreements, the agreements already formalized between the General Administration of the State and various local entities under the protection of Article 38.4.b will be foreseen. of Law 30/1992, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure, remain in force until their extinction or until the moment when the corresponding local entity's accession to an agreement of the provided for in this Agreement.

Sixth. Formalization of bilateral agreements between the General Administration of the State and local entities. -The Minister of Public Administrations may continue to formalize bilateral agreements with local authorities, according to the model approved by the Council of Ministers Agreement of 23 February 1996.