The Constitutional Court has annulled several articles of the Legislative Decree of the Government of Extremadura, which established urgent measures to regulate the use of lithium minerals in this autonomous community. The government appealed against these regulations, considering that its powers had been compromised by the regulations of the Executive of Extremadura. The court accepted this theory because the central administration had the authority to determine the “fundamentals of the mining regime”. “
The ruling annuls the essential provisions of the regional law, such as that which established the obligation that the treatment of Extremadura lithium and the benefits resulting from it must be carried out in Extremadura itself. The regional regulations also established a sanctions regime and stipulated that failure to comply with these provisions could result in the loss of the mining concession. On the other hand, these types of concessions were declared to be “of public benefit and social interest for expropriation purposes.” The result was that the company, which did not fulfill its obligation to process the lithium extracted in the municipality of Extremadura, was threatened with urgent expropriation. The partially repealed decree law was passed during the term of office of the former president of the junta Guillermo Fernández Vara (PSOE), who defended it by saying that it goes “far beyond the mining regime” since its purpose is to promote economic and social development promote Extremadura.
The judgment emphasizes that the contested norm interfered with the powers corresponding to the State, since the legislative decree made any concession for the exploitation of lithium mineral resources in Extremadura conditional on compliance with the obligation that the metallurgical and mineralogical treatment and exploitation of the The resources of this mineral are inevitably developed in the territory of the municipality of Extremadura.
The judgment, for which Judge César Tolosa, from the conservative sector of the court, was the speaker, is based on article 73.1 of a pre-constitutional law 22/1973 on mines. The judgment recognizes that the said commandment contains “a fundamental rule regarding the mining regime,” which grants the State “the power to decide whether or not the treatment and benefits derived from the exploitation of resources should take place in Spain.” concessionaires” to satisfy the “national interest”.
contradiction
The decree-law approved by the board of Extremaduran, on the other hand, gives the regional administration the power to tie the granting of lithium extraction to the municipality itself. In this way, according to the reasoning behind the judgment, it is impossible for the state to make such decisions. The court is of the opinion that the regional regulations have thus come into “obvious contradiction” with the above-mentioned Article 73.1 of the Mining Law.
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The judgment argues that the requirement that the metallurgical and mineralurgical treatment and exploitation of lithium resources take place on the territory of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura “involves the introduction of a geographical restriction on the freedom to do business that is not justified on compelling grounds.” in general Interest.” The ruling adds that the Extremaduran Board’s legislative decree is also unconstitutional because it violates the law of guarantee of market unity.
Judges Ramón Sáez and Laura Díez, from the progressive faction of the Constitutional Court, at the same time “agreed with the judgment but agreed with other arguments” and considered that the appeal should only be allowed on a violation of state competition on issues of market unity. However, they contradict the interpretation adopted by the majority of the Guarantee Authority in the sense that the cited article of the Mining Law “contains a fundamental rule that reserves exclusively to the State certain regulatory powers to the detriment of the autonomous communities.”
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