He Constitutional Court has finally annulled the renewable energy law in Aragon to make energy cheaper and achieve broad autonomous sovereignty in this matter. The plenary session of the Constitutional Court unanimously considered appeal for unconstitutionality which was presented on December 20 by the executive of Pedro Sánchez against the Decree law March 2023, urgent measures to promote the energy transition and energy consumption in Aragon.
In this regard, the Vice President of the Government of Aragon, Mar Vaquero, transmitted a message of “political and legal tranquility“, since the current Executive had already assessed that this situation could occur and decided not to count on its application and to stick to the state norm, which “has not been moved.”
In this regard, he insisted that the Government of Aragon will continue to promote the deployment of renewable energies, but “always in an orderly and regulated manner”, with the horizon of developing a new law in “harmony and agreement with the rest of the parties.”
The decision of the Constitutional Court
The decision of the Constitutional Court to which OKDIARIO had access is dated September 10 while the Government of Aragon received the official communication on the same Thursday afternoon, after which the Vice-President considered that the judgment of the said Court “does not concern the substance of the various articles, but rather the form“, since the decree-law, “was not appropriate”, considering that the urgency with which it was treated was not justified.
Now they will be legal services of the Government of Aragon, those who carry out “the corresponding analysis,” he added. However, the vice president predicted that the cancellation “will not affect the energy management that is being developed.”
“Small application”
According to Vaquero, “it was a settlement of bad application“, precisely because, after the last bilateral cooperation meeting with the Spanish government, there was “no agreement” between the parties, to “try to resolve these differences and evaluate said appeal of unconstitutionality”. In addition, at this meeting, the “wrong candidacy” was taken into account, he maintained.
In this sense, the Executive of Azcón assured that “this will not affect the processing of the different files” and, therefore, none of the Declarations of general interest (SAY) that they are in force, nor at Plans and projects of general interest of Aragon (PIGAS).
In fact, by cancelling this decree-law, certain projects could benefit in their processing since the DIGAS will not require the presentation of a strategic investment.
Energy sovereignty in Aragon and the law
The Lambán Decree Law was treated as an achievement to achieve the “Energy sovereignty of Aragon“It is indeed decreasing,” acknowledged the current vice president. It is precisely on this issue that the Council of Ministers of Pedro Sánchez has asserted its appeal for unconstitutionality, because it considered that it endangered the stability of the electrical system and its economic regime, if its provisions were generalized to all the autonomous communities.
The Aragonese law on renewable energies
Specifically, Art. 4, 5, Sections 1, 2 and 4; Art. 6; Art. 7, Section 1, 2 and letters a), b) and c) of Section 3; Art. 12, Section 2, concerning the subsection “internal networks may be established at any voltage level for self-consumption purposes”, and Article 3, concerning the subsection “and establish and operate internal networks of any voltage level to establish power supply systems”. self-consumption”; Art. 13, Articles 2, 3 and 4; Art. 19, Art. 22.2; Art. 38, Art. 39, Art. 40, Articles 2 and 3; Art. 59, the fourth and fifth additional provisions and the third transitional provision.
However, the Constitutional Court chose to annul the entire decree-law, because it appreciated that the references it includes to the Covid-19 pandemic and to armed conflict in Ukraine They are “made in an abstract and generic manner”, not justifying the urgency with which they were treated, considering that this is contrary to art. 86.1 CE due to the lack of enabling budget. In addition to having limited the ability to contribute to the rest of the political formations.
In other words, the Constitutional Court appreciates that there is no explanation as to why the contested norm must be approved with extraordinary urgency, removing it from the legislative procedure to the detriment of parliamentary minorities, especially when it is a large-scale reform with direct repercussions on the entire electrical system and on energy costs, and whose aim is to change. the energy model in Aragon.
