The Congress of Deputies will have to decide on the legality of the proposed transfer to Catalonia of “comprehensive immigration skills” that the Government and Junts per Catalunya accepted last January. The Popular Party presented a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) to protect the exclusive non-transferable powers of the state.
The initiative of the Popular Party, to which this newspaper had access, reminds the Government that the powers “non-transferable due to sovereignty” They are not likely to be transferred to the Autonomous Communities.
And establishes a catalog, based on the article 149 of the Constitution: those of Nationalityimmigration, emigration, foreigners and the right to asylum. Also the international relationsthose of Defense and the armed forces, Justicehe Customs regime and the Monetary system.
The text also aims “reopen” the Constitutional Commission of the Lower House, “kidnapped by the government”, and where he wants to lead this debate. According to PP PSOE sources, this commission is kept closed, practically without activity, since the start of the legislature.
The people presented several writings to the Congress Council denouncing that the president of this body, the socialist deputy Jose Zaragozakeep it in a “unacceptable inactivity” despite the fact that the Constitutional Commission is “assigned to functions of the utmost importance for our democratic system”.
“Neither transferable nor delegable”
This new PNL of the PP urges the government of Pedro Sánchez to respect the constitutional provisions, which expressly establish that immigration policy “is neither transferable nor delegable.”
The text states that, according to article 149 of the Spanish Constitution, certain policies “they guarantee the territorial integrity of the State and the equality of the Spaniards”they cannot therefore be claimed by an autonomous community nor does the State have the power to award them.
The agreement was a demand from the party Carles Puigdemont when, on January 10, he threatened the government, barely a month and a half after having delivered his seven votes to invest Pedro Sanchezby canceling the first three decrees that the Council of Ministers had submitted for validation by the legislative power.
The right-wing independence party maintained its position No to the decrees, alleging that they invaded the autonomous powers and that had not been “previously negotiated at Waterloo” until, in an extremis negotiation, he obtained several commitments from the PSOE. One of them was to entrust the Generalitat with exclusive powers over immigration policy.
Since then, the government has left the matter unresolved. But last weekend, in Geneva, Puigdemont, Miriam Nogueras And Jordi Turull they demanded Santos Cerdansecretary of the Socialist Organization, the culmination of this transfer. “With Sánchez’s degree of non-compliance so far,” says an official party source, “he is impossible for us to even sit down negotiate the path to the deficit and, even less, the 2025 budgets”.
Last week, the government removed the vote on the deficit trajectory, scheduled for Thursday, from the Congressional agenda. And sources from both sides confirmed that negotiations were “ongoing.” “They finally discovered that “in exchange for nothing” doesn’t work with us“, says a Junts source. “Spaces for dialogue are open”said one of the PSOE members.
“National sovereignty”
The fact is that the first point that Puigdemont asks to be supported is that of immigration policy. And that is why the PP hastened to present this PNL.
The “decentralized system which allows the transfer or delegation of powers to subnational administrations”, we can read in the explanatory memorandum, is based on “criteria for efficiency and quality of public services”but “in no case, through transfers of powers which diminish the powers of a sovereign country”.
The Constitution provides for the possibility of transfer or delegation in its articles 149 and 150. But its own “flexible” structure establishes the “inalienable character” of exclusive powers of the State as “guarantors” of the proper functioning of the political system and “for preserve stability, equality and cohesion in Spain”, we read in the PP text. “They are the foundation of national sovereignty”.
These key skills are Justice, national security, immigration and foreign policy. Maintaining them under the control of the central government “allows the Spanish State to guarantee that inequalities do not occur between the different territories and to promote full realization of rights of all Spaniards.
In any case, article 149 provides for the transfer of part of these exclusive powers of the State to the Autonomous Communities. But immigration policy is not taken into account, which is why the people are demanding the convening of a constitutional debate in Congress, alleging that “Sánchez’s commitment clearly does not fit into the Magna Carta”.
First, because immigration policy does not comply with the provisions of article 150which requires an organic law to transfer “competences corresponding to matters of State property which, by their nature, are subject to assignment or delegation“And this because article 149 includes immigration among the questions of “exclusive and non-transferable competence of the State”remembers NLP.
And because, beyond the illegality against which the PP warns in this transfer project to the Generalitat, the text warns against “serious risks for sovereignty, territorial unity, equality of Spaniards and the social cohesion of the country” that this would entail. that the government gave in to demands for independence at this point.
Because an Autonomous Community would be authorized to legislate differently from the rest of the State in matters of control of “border management, residence permits, “language requirements” of foreign citizens.
He also highlights the PNL according to which the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) “recognizes States as counterparties negotiation, coordination and approval of public policies in this area.” And that the recent Pact on Migration and Asylumof December 20, “strengthens the European spirit of moving forward in strengthening the supranational management system supported by the transfer of sovereignty to the European Union”.
Thus, Sánchez’s promise to Puigdemont, say PP sources, “It’s going in the opposite direction.” to that of the EU.
Thus, the proposal of the Popular Parliamentary Group urges the government to “confirm the existence of exclusive, non-delegable powers” by the State, “by reason of its sovereignty”. And it must guarantee, “taking into account the events of January 10, that the control of residence permits, language requirements and border management are fundamental aspects of immigration policy which must be the exclusive and non-transferable competence of the Spanish State”.
