FELIPE VI

KING OF SPAIN

To all who present it and understand it.

Sabed: That the General Cortes have approved and I come to sanction the following organic law:

PREAMBLE

The Autonomous State agreed upon in the Transition and designed by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 has performed reasonably well during the more than thirty-five years that the fundamental norm takes into effect. It has allowed the creation and consolidation of a strong Autonomous State and has become a decisive factor in the construction of our social and democratic rule of law.

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its article 147, configures the Statutes of Autonomy as the basic institutional norm of each Autonomous Community that the State will recognize and will provide as an integral part of the legal. In such a way that the Statutes of Autonomy share with the Constitution, in the respective area of its Autonomous Community, its conceptualization as an inspiring principle and its condition as the foundation of social order and political coexistence civic.

Therefore, it is evident that the Statutes of Autonomy should be subject to the Constitution as a guarantee of stability and non-friction in the legal and institutional architecture of the State. If we add to this its character as a rule of law, it must be the Constitutional Court that holds the monopoly of its control of constitutionality.

In this sense, the Council of State's opinion, in its report on the reforms of the Spanish Constitution issued in 2006, is "diaphanous" when it states that " this ex-post control may not be the most appropriate for sources. Regulations that, like the Statutes, subordinate to the Constitution, occupy the highest place in the ordinamental hierarchy. To rid them of the suspicion of unconstitutionality and, to fortiori, of the explicit accusation of incurring it, it could be considered the convenience of reintroducing the previous resource of unconstitutionality. "

Certainly, the existence of a previous resource of unconstitutionality for the Statutes of Autonomy and its proposals for reform does not constitute a novelty from a historical-legal point of view. In fact, the existence of the prior recourse of unconstitutionality was instituted by the Organic Law 2/1979 of 3 October of the Constitutional Court, and was not abolished until the promulgation of the Organic Law 4/1985, of 7 June, when all-or almost all-of the Statutes of Autonomy were in force.

All this allows us to infer that, in order to avoid constitutional and institutional questioning and to have legal rigor and social cohesion, the State becomes necessary and appropriate to restore, adapting it to the current State configuration, the previous resource of unconstitutionality, that is, only for the Autonomy Statutes and its reform proposals. The main reproach that this legal institution deserved in the past is thus avoided when it could be used by the minority groups to paralyze the entry into force of legal, organic norms, approved by the General Courts.

In short, it is necessary to guarantee the, not always easy, balance between the special legitimacy that the Statutes of Autonomy have as the basic institutional norm of the Autonomous Communities, in whose approval The autonomous communities and the state, and sometimes the electoral body, are involved in a referendum, and the respect of this text to the constitutional framework, built around the Constitution as a fundamental rule of the State and our legal order.

The scope of the reform affects three precepts of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court.

Article 2 is amended, for the purpose of including, among the functions of the Constitutional Court, the prior control of constitutionality in the cases provided for in Article 79 of this Law (Projects of Statutes of Autonomy and their reform proposals).

Article 10 is amended, in order to include among the matters of which it is appropriate to know the Court in plenary, the preliminary resources of unconstitutionality against the Statutes of Autonomy and its proposals of reform.

A new Title VI is added and a new article 79 (which had left the Organic Law 4/1985, of 7 June), which regulates the new prior control of the unconstitutionality of the Draft Statutes, is added. Autonomy and its proposals for reform, pointing out that the challenge will be to challenge the final text of the draft Statute or the proposed reform of the Statute after it has been dealt with in both Chambers of the General Courts. Moreover, the procedure is governed by the provisions of the resources of unconstitutionality, although, by the very nature of this resource, the time limit for its interposition is extremely short (three days). And in order to prevent undesirable delays in its resolution, a six-month time limit is set for the Court to decide on a preferential basis. The new Article 79 also specifies the effects of the interposition of the appeal-which automatically suspends the processing of the project-and of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which will result in the failure to follow the procedure As long as the declared unconstitutional projects have not been deleted or modified by the General Courts.

Single item. Amendment of Organic Law 2/1979 of 3 October of the Constitutional Court.

One. A new heading (e) is added to the second paragraph of Article 2, with the following wording:

" e) bis. The prior control of unconstitutionality in the case provided for in Article seventy-nine of this Law. "

Two. A new heading (d) bis is added to paragraph 1 of Article 10, with the following wording:

" d) bis. From the previous resources of unconstitutionality against the Statutes of Autonomy and against Proposals of Reform of the Statutes of Autonomy. "

Three. A new Title VI bis and a new Article seventy-nine are added, which will have the following wording:

" TITLE VI BIS

From the previous resource of unconstitutionality against the Statutes of Autonomy and against Proposals for the Reform of the Autonomy Statutes

Article seventy-nine.

One. They are subject to an unconstitutionality, with prior character, the Statutes of Autonomy Projects and the proposals to reform them.

Two. The purpose of the appeal shall be to challenge the final text of the draft Statute or the Proposal for the Reform of a Statute, once approved by the General Courts.

Three. They are legitimized to institute the previous recourse of unconstitutionality, who, according to the Constitution and with this Organic Law, are legitimized to institute resources of unconstitutionality against the Statute of Autonomy.

Four. The period for the appeal shall be three days after the publication of the text approved in the Official Gazette of the General Courts. The interposition of the resource will automatically suspend all subsequent processing.

Five. Where the approval of the draft Statute or the proposed reform is to be submitted to a referendum in the territory of the respective Autonomous Community, the latter may not be convened until the Constitutional Court has been resolved and, in its The provisions declared unconstitutional have been deleted or amended by the General Courts.

Six. The prior recourse of unconstitutionality shall be substantiated in the manner provided for in Chapter II of Title II of this Law and shall be settled by the Constitutional Court within the term of six months from its interposition. The Court will have the necessary to give effective compliance to this forecast, reducing the normal time limits and giving in any case preference to the resolution of these resources on the other matters in processing.

Seven. Where the judgment of the Court declares the absence of the alleged unconstitutionality, the procedures leading to its entry into force shall continue, including, where appropriate, the relevant procedure for convening and holding referendum.

Eight. If, on the other hand, it declares the unconstitutionality of the contested text, it must specify the precepts to which it reaches, those who by connection or consequence are affected by such a declaration and the constitutional precept or precepts infringed. In this case, the processing may not continue without such precepts being deleted or modified by the General Courts.

Nine. The decision of the Court of Appeal does not prejudge the Court's decision on the remedies or questions of unconstitutionality which may be brought after the entry into force of the contested text into force in the prior way. "

Final disposition.

This Organic Law will enter into force the day after its publication in the "Official Gazette of the State".

Therefore,

I command all Spaniards, individuals and authorities, to keep and keep this organic law.

Madrid, 22 September 2015.

FELIPE R.

The President of the Government,

MARIANO RAJOY BREY