On May 28, 2024, it was published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (hereinafter, “BOIB“) Decree Law 3/2024, of May 24, on the simplification and rationalization of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands (hereinafter, “DL 3/2024“), whose purpose is to establish extraordinary and urgent measures to promote the administrative simplification and rationalization of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands.
DL 3/2024 is structured into a preliminary title, three specific titles, eight additional provisions, eight transitional provisions, a repealing provision and a final provision. Specifically:
1.- Preliminary Title. General provisions.
The Preliminary title establishes the object of the decree law, which consists of the adoption of extraordinary and urgent measures, to promote the administrative simplification and rationalization of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands.
The purposes of the standard are determined, which are essentially the following: a) rationalize the general regime of administrative intervention by establishing order, simplicity and timeliness in the organization and procedures carried out, through the study, design and simplification of structures, functions, procedures and charges, and the optimal comprehensive use of existing resources; b) simplify the administrative procedures necessary for the implementation of business initiatives in the territory of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, through the adoption of measures aimed at making the processing of procedures more flexible, streamlining them and reducing the temporary duration; c) establish generic instruments of a transversal nature that help with simplification, with a transformation of the entire organizational culture of the public sector, based on the general duty of all entities and bodies that make up the autonomous public sector to effectively promote administrative simplification in the respective areas of competence; d) introduce simplification measures in regional regulations that involve the elimination of obstacles to citizens and economic operators in their relations with the Administration; e) eliminate collegiate bodies from the scope of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands with a view to seeking more administrative simplification and in the name of the principle of legal certainty; f) continue advancing in the digital transformation of the Administration, as an essential imperative, in this process of modernization, rationalization and simplification; g) reinforce assistance to citizens in accessing public services and remove obstacles that limit the economic and social development of the Balearic Islands, and facilitate the exercise of their rights and compliance with their obligations through the use and reuse of data.
In this context, the general duty of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands to promote administrative simplification is expressly determined.
2.- Title I. General regulatory and procedural simplification measures.
Title I determines the general regulatory and procedural simplification measures, which are carried out through the modification of different legal texts, among others, the following:
- Modifications to the Consolidated Text of the Subsidies Law, approved by Legislative Decree 2/2005, of December 28.Regarding subsidies, among others, the possibility is provided for applicants, beneficiaries and collaborating entities to relate to the convening entity by electronic means in certain cases, and that successive publications in the granting procedure can be carried out in the electronic headquarters. In addition, it is worth highlighting the streamlining of the payment of subsidies through the modification of the verification system.
- Modifications to Law 5/2010, of June 16, of the Advisory Council of the Balearic Islands.The draft regulatory provisions that must be submitted to the mandatory opinion of the Advisory Council of the Balearic Islands are reformulated, excluding the draft orders of Directors and those of a technical nature, and their modifications, whose content is determined by sectoral or European regulations; These projects may be submitted to optional consultation.
- Modifications to Law 1/2019, of January 31, of the Government of the Balearic Islands.In relation to the regulatory development procedure, the following modifications are included, among others:
- -the need to carry out the hearing process for the interested parties is excluded in the event of participation in the aforementioned procedure through a report or consultations;
- -It is clarified that to comply with the public information and hearing procedures provided for in this title, it will be sufficient for the bodies responsible for processing the regulatory provisions to insert the corresponding announcement on the website for citizen participation in regulatory development, indicating the duration of the procedure. In this way, the need to publish the corresponding advertisement in the BOIB is eliminated;
- -The need to mandatory submit the regulatory proposal to the impact assessment report on the well-being of present and future generations, issued by the promoting body, and the opinion of the Commission for the well-being of present and future generations of the Balearic Islands, when appropriate in accordance with the regulatory regulations, is eliminated.
- -the deadline for issuing reports that come from other administrations is reduced;
- -The possibility of carrying out a simplified regulatory impact analysis report is foreseen.
Likewise, in this title I, the possibility is established in sanctioning procedures of consulting personal data related to the presumed responsible parties on data intermediation platforms or any other electronic systems enabled for this purpose to process and resolve sanctioning procedures.
Finally, the approval of a “Guide to simplify procedures of the Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands” is expected within a period of six months from the approval of DL 3/2024 and the possibility of its application by the island councils and the rest of the local entities in their procedures.
3.- Title II.Regulatory and procedural simplification measures by sectoral areas.
Title II regulates, among others, the following regulatory and procedural simplification measures by sectoral areas:
- Measures in agriculture, livestock, rural development, hunting, fishing and the natural environment. Among others, the modifications to the following standards stand out:
- to.Law 3/2019, of January 31, agrarian law of the Balearic Islands (Agrarian Law). DL 3/2024:
- -simplifies, facilitates and clarifies the obligations and requirements of the owners of agricultural holdings to carry out this activity. Specifically, among other measures, (i) the possibility of island councils to exempt said owners from compliance with legal requirements established, in addition to agrarian legislation, in urban planning legislation and for administrative projects is expanded (art. 11 Agrarian Law); (ii) in relation to buildings, constructions and facilities linked to agricultural and complementary activities, the exemptions for the purposes of occupancy and buildability are expanded (art. 111 Agrarian Law), the limitation on exemptions for typological and aesthetic characteristics is eliminated, with respect to the type of land and area, as well as the obligation to guarantee a public information process in the exemption procedure (art. 114 Agrarian Law); and (iii) the regime of infrastructure and service provisions related to agricultural holdings on rural land is simplified (art. 117 Agrarian Law);
- -adds a new third additional provision to the Agrarian Law, which provides that buildings, constructions and facilities intended for agricultural uses, located on an agricultural holding (except those located in maritime-terrestrial domain and their easement areas), existing on May 29, 2024 and built prior to the entry into force of Law 1/1991, of January 30, on the urban planning regime of the special protection areas of the Balearic Islands, and provided that as of May 29, 2024 it is not appropriate to adopt measures to protect urban planning legality derived from firm administrative or judicial resolutions, they are considered incorporated into the planning with all the rights and duties inherent to the works executed with a license, regardless of the classification of the land, regulating the procedure to recognize said incorporation;
- -rationalizes the management of the inter-island agricultural registry of the Balearic Islands and the regional registry of agricultural holdings.
- b.Law 6/2006, of April 12, on river hunting and fishing.DL 3/2024 modifies the regulation of the general hunting regime, in order to simplify the processing of authorizations for hunting activities that are subject to the general regime.
- c.Law 1/1999, of March 17, on the Statute of agri-food producers and industrialists of the Balearic Islands. DL 3/2024 adapts and reinforces the sanctioning regime provided for in this regulation, increasing the pecuniary sanctions for serious infractions at all levels and up to a maximum of 60,000 euros (and consequently the minimum level of pecuniary sanctions for very serious infractions).
- Measures regarding the sea, the water cycle and water resources. DL 3/2024 also addresses simplification measures in the field of the sea, the water cycle and water resources. Likewise, activities and land uses in the police zone not subject to authorization from the Administration are regulated; flood zones and flood risk prevention areas; authorizations to the maritime-terrestrial public domain for events of general interest with tourist impact and for works, uses and activities on urban stretches of beaches; and the authorization or responsible declaration for uses and activities in the coastal protection easement area (in line with what is established in this area in Law 4/2023, of July 6, on the Integrated Planning and Management of the Galician Coast, supported by the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court 68/2024, of April 23). Likewise, Law 10/2005, of June 21, on ports of the Balearic Islands, is modified, including within the scope of the regulation the cleaning and surveillance of coastal waters, within the scope of powers of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands, and without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the State Administration, the department responsible for the environment and the municipalities of the Balearic Islands.
- Energy measures. Several measures are also adopted in DL 3/2024 to reduce bureaucratic obstacles in the area of renewable energies, with an important simplification in energy transition projects.
- Mobility measures. DL 3/2024, among other measures in the field of mobility, regulates an extraordinary and temporary regime of dissuasive parking, which town councils may locate on rural land to facilitate mobility during times of greater influx of visitors.
- Measures in the environmental field. The regulation of DL 3/2024 on environmental matters is mainly focused on reducing the accumulation of existing files also in this area with the aim of simplifying environmental impact assessments and streamlining the issuance of reports. Among other measures, the following stand out:
- a.The abolition of the Environmental Commission of the Balearic Islands, the powers of which will be assumed by the general direction to be determined organically.
- b.Modifications of theLaw 5/2005, of May 26, for the conservation of spaces of environmental relevance (LECO). Specifically (i) it is established that the environmental planning instruments or the protection rules of each natural space can determine the authorizable uses or activities for which it is sufficient for the interested party to submit a responsible declaration (art. 21 LECO) and (ii) specific modifications are included in the impact assessment procedure (art. 39 LECO).
- c.Modifications of theConsolidated text of the Environmental Assessment Law of the Balearic Islands, approved by Legislative Decree 1/2020, of August 28 (Environmental Assessment Law). Among other modifications, (i) specific modifications are carried out on projects subject to ordinary or simplified environmental impact assessment, in order to rationalize them, and (ii) the particularities relating to the validity of environmental impact declarations and reports are regulated (new art. 21 bis (Environmental Assessment Law). With this new regulation, as indicated in the Explanatory Memorandum of DL 3/2024, the aim is to respond, among others, to the problem of many outfalls and other hydraulic infrastructures, since there may be the inconsistency that the mandatory and relevant authorizations (for example, regarding coasts), after years of processing, may be denied or negatively conditioned, resulting in the environmental impact declaration having been granted but expired and having to restart the entire processing from the beginning.
- Tourism measures. The modifications of theLaw 8/2012, of July 19, on tourism in the Balearic Islands (Tourism Law)They focus (i) firstly, for legal certainty and to facilitate application by legal operators, to carry out the reforms consequent to the suppression of the occupancy certificate, which results in favor of the corresponding regulatory simplification, and (ii) secondly, to expressly provide, in this area, for energy efficiency facilities, and infrastructure for the recharging of electric vehicles and renewable energies. Likewise, it is clarified that violations of tourism regulations may lead to the temporary or permanent closure of not only the establishment or housing for tourist use, but also that for residential use (art. 122 Tourism Law). And, in this same line, it is clarified that the provisional measure of temporary closure (art. 128 Tourism Law) can be with respect to the establishment or home for tourist use and also the home for residential use, and that, in any case, said provisional measure must be agreed upon when it comes to the very serious infraction typified in letter i) of art. 120 (“The advertising, contracting or marketing of tourist stays in residential homes whose typology does not allow the presentation of the responsible declaration of the start of tourist activity or the homes are located in areas not suitable for the marketing of tourist stays in residential homes.“).
- Measures regarding urban harmonization. With respect to urban planning, the following measures stand out, among others:
- a.Deletion of the first occupancy certificate of habitability, which is replaced by the occupancy or first use license.
- b.TheLaw 12/2017, of December 29, on urban planning of the Balearic Islands. Among other measures, a new art. 36 bis, which provides that municipalities with a population of up to 10,000 inhabitants can formulate and approve a single general plan that includes both structural and detailed urban planning in the terms of the following sections, without the need to have a detailed planning plan. Likewise, a new chapter is added referring to the establishment of a public-private collaboration regime through private urban certification entities, accredited by the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC); This outsourcing system aims to streamline the granting of licenses by municipalities.
- c.On the other hand, a specific modification is made to the reclassification of urban land without consolidated urbanization that was carried out through theDecree Law 10/2022, of December 27, on Urgent Measures in Urban Planning Matters. Specifically, a subsection that established the obligation that no more than three years have passed since the last essential act in the processing of the adaptation process in order to maintain the classification of urban land. This new regulation, as indicated in the Explanatory Memorandum of DL 3/2024, represented a bureaucratic obstacle for some municipalities that had already adopted the initial approval agreement of the planning instrument. The current modification, which will take effect from the entry into force of Decree Law 10/2022, will allow the affected municipalities to maintain the classification as urban land.
3.- Title III. Measures to promote the digitalization of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands.
Title III refers to the measures to promote the digitalization of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands, such as the automation of administrative activity, automated administrative action, the Interoperability Platform of the Balearic Islands and the accession of the local entities of the Balearic Islands, the Electronic Registration System and the Digitalization Plan of the Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands.
4.- Other provisions.
DL 3/2024 includes eight additional provisions. Among other provisions, the regulation of a procedure for the extraordinary legalization of buildings, constructions, facilities and uses existing on rural land stands out, with respect to which the right of the Administration to demand the reestablishment of urban planning legality has prescribed. In the case of homes, it is established that these cannot be used for the marketing of tourist stays (seventh additional provision).
Likewise, DL 3/2024 includes eight transitional provisions, which, among other provisions, regulate the transitional regime inherent to the suppression of the Environment Commission of the Balearic Islands as well as the transitional regime derived from the suppression of the first occupancy certificate of habitability.
The single repealing provision of DL 3/2024 establishes, in general terms, that all regulations of equal or lower rank that are contrary to the provisions of DL 3/2024 are repealed, and also provides for the express repeal of several regulations.
5.- Entry into force.
In accordance with the single final provision of DL 3/2024, it came into force once published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands, on May 29, 2024. This, with the exception of the modifications contained in art. 39.2 and 56 of DL 3/2024 itself, which will come into force with retroactive effects from December 29, 2022.
The content of this Alert is for informational purposes only. Any decision or action based on its content must be subject to appropriate professional advice.
