Estabilidad presupuestaria y Comunidades Autónomas

Abstract

This article deals with the principle of budget stability and the Autonomous Communities. It studies the amendment of the Article 135 of the Spanish Constitution and the Organic Act 2/2012, April 17th, of Budget Stability and Fiscal Sustainability. Through this regulation, the central government has committed itself to the principle of budget stability, whilst also guaranteeing the commitment of Autonomous Communities and local governments to that principle. The effect on Autonomous Communities has been, not only a loss in their scope for adopting their own budget policy within the framework of their fiscal powers, but also a conditioning of their decision making power in concrete fields of public action. The transfer of sovereignty to the European Union in matters of economic policy has thus translatedinto a limit to Autonomous Communities’ self-government. It has translated into an ”unwritten” change in their scope of financial self-government and, moreover, into an ”unwritten” amendment of their Statutes of Autonomy, particularly of the most recent ones.

Keywords

• budget stability
• Autonomous Communities
• Constitutional amendment
• financial self-government