The Government does not foresee “any penalty“by the replacement of Ex Libris Alma library management software which is currently used by the National Library and is owned by an Israeli company.
“The payment of any penalty is not foreseen, since the termination of the contract derives from a sudden legal impossibility caused by the entry into force of the Royal Decree of Embargo.. When a legal norm prohibits continuing to execute a contract, the Administration can resolve it without penalties, given that it acts by legal mandate and not by unilateral will. In any case, the legal services are supervising the process to guarantee that the resolution is carried out with complete legal certainty and in accordance with public sector contract legislation.“says the Executive in a written parliamentary response to a question from Vox.
Those from Abascal asked whether the cancellation of said contract in force when the bidding competition ends, from which both it and the rest of the Israeli companies will be excluded, would mean some type of penalty for Spain.
In the text, to which Europa Press has had access, the Government states that although the decision to change the contract also responds to a “technical criterion”, the Royal Embargo Decree approved by the Government must be complied with, which prohibits the importation of goods and services from “companies based in occupied territories“, as is the case of the headquarters of the company that owns the current system.
“In this context, the National Library and the Ministry of Culture are obliged to guarantee the full adaptation of their contracts to current legislation.which requires replacing the current software with another that does not violate the regulatory framework or the international commitments of the State,” the Government points out.