The Constitutional Court has annulled the transfer to the Basque Country of the management of local officials with national authorization, such as local secretaries and treasurers, a competence that was included in a provision of the General State Budget Law of 2022 that has now been declared unconstitutional. The magistrates of the court of guarantees have upheld, by majority, the appeal of unconstitutionality promoted by the PP. The sentence, for which Judge Enrique Arnaldo has been the speaker, will have a dissenting vote from Judge María Luis Balaguer that has not yet been made public.
Specifically, the concession – which was also challenged by Vox – was contemplated in the first final provision of the Budgets and established that the Basque Country assumed all the powers provided for in the Law regulating the Bases of the Local Regime with respect to the officials of the Local administration with national authorization. In this way, the power was granted in the selection, the approval of the public employment offer to cover the existing vacancies of the positions corresponding to them in their territory, the exclusive call for this of the provision processes for the vacant positions. , the power to appoint official personnel in said provision processes, the assignment of the first destination and administrative situations.
Currently, the provision has a new wording, although with a similar wording, although this has not prevented the magistrates from analyzing the matter. In fact, the ruling highlights that said modification has not entailed a sudden loss of the object of the appeal. In this sense, the Constitutional Court considers that the precept “exceeds the possible content of a budget law” and, consequently, violates article 66.2 of the Constitution, which protects the legislative post-statehood of the Cortes Generales, the approval of the Budgets and control of the Government, as well as article 134.2, which states that public accounts must be annual and will include all the expenses and income of the state public sector and the allocation of tax benefits that affect State taxes.
“This is a rule regarding public functions, which has no connection with the remuneration regime of local administration officials with national qualifications nor does it have a direct economic impact on income or expenses,” concludes the ruling, as stated. The court of guarantees informed in a statement.
The PP also alleged in its appeal the violation of constitutional rights that include the conservation, modification and development by the autonomous communities of civil, provincial or special rights and the possibility of the State transferring or delegating state-owned powers to the territories. . However, the TC has not examined these issues, understanding that the estimate of the resource already makes it unnecessary.