Tax reform once again blocks the government in the Lower House. This situation causes Pedro Sánchez to lead one of the years with the fewest regulations approved since the creation of the Constitution. In his new period at the head of the Spanish government, he adopted only five ordinary laws, four organic laws and seven royal decrees-laws. In total, there are 16 regulations that the current executive has managed to advance in Congress.
It should be noted that of the 16 regulations carried out, seven of them were approved last month, two corresponding to the royal decrees which include the aid which will be used to repair and compensate those affected by Dana.
It only surpasses the bad year at the regulatory level of 2016, during which 10 laws were approved, However, it must be taken into account that the government of Mariano Rajoy was in power until June due to the impossibility of forming a government after the elections of December 2015 and led to the convening of a new vote in June 2016.
The current legislature of Pedro Sánchez has been marked mainly by the approval of the amnesty law paying Catalan independence groups for their support in order to appoint him as president. However, since the formation of the government in November 2023, the current executive has presented 37 legislative proposals to the Cortes, of which only five have been approved. In total, there are 32 laws in preparation that are blocked in Congress, awaiting an infinite extension of the amendment period.
Among the future regulations which were presented at the start of the year and which have already more than twenty extensions deadlines for modifying them are the bill on sustainable mobility; the Family Law Project, which provides for more conciliation measures and aims to gradually make education free for children under 3 years old; the bill to regulate customer service, which requires companies to respond to citizens’ calls within three minutes; or the bill to create the Spanish Copyright Office. Another norm, with more than 18 extensions to the presentation of amendments and which was taken over from the previous legislature, is the one that seeks to create an independent Authority to resolve customer conflicts with banks extrajudicially.
Currently, we know postponement of the global minimum tax bill on multinationalswhich includes tax reform through amendments, due to lack of support in Congress. Time is running out and the government will try to move it forward as required by Europe, since it should have come into force before the end of 2023, but has been postponed since last June.
