Understanding the Spanish Statute of Autonomy

Procedure for Access to Autonomy

Via general Art. CE 143.2: Simple model. The initiative with the provincial councils. 2/3 of the municipalities whose population represents at least a majority of the electorate of each province or island.

Special Via / rapid Art. 151 CE: Complex model. Also, the county councils. It takes 3/4 of the municipalities in each of the provinces representing at least a majority of the electorate of each one. It also has to be approved by referendum with the absolute majority of voters in each province.

Alternative Exceptional Initiatives

There are also three specific initiatives (other than the conventional two):

• Second Transitional Provision: For territories that had approved by referendum before a statute of autonomy and have provisional regimes of autonomy (Catalonia, Basque Country, Galicia). Requirements: Just agreed by an absolute majority of the pre-autonomous bodies.
• Fourth Transitory Provision: Case of Navarra.
• Fifth Transitional Provision: Case of Ceuta and Melilla.

Those who initially accessed autonomy by way of Article 143 EC could only assume jurisdiction of art. 148 CE and had to wait 5 years before expanding their powers. But in practice, autonomous powers were expanded through treaties.

The Statute of Autonomy

• The Statute of Autonomy determines the distribution of powers between the Autonomous Communities and the State.
• To establish a guarantee of stability, to alter the entitlements provided for in the Statute of Autonomy, it is necessary to reform it.
• The Statute of Autonomy, approved by Organic Law, is the basic institutional norm of each Autonomous Community (EC 147.1). It determines the name, territory, political institutions, and the powers of regional governments, arising from the territorial organization of the State, by virtue of the right to autonomy that recognizes the nationalities CE, unfinished structure of the state.
• The Statute of Autonomy is a result of using a law that recognizes and protects the EC. A series of limits must be set (the Statute may adopt a rigid procedure for reform, and change is a prerequisite to alter the structure of the State). Following the adoption of the Statute of Autonomy, the state structure is fixed, which should enjoy a degree of constitutional stability, guaranteed by its inclusion in the constitutional bloc.