DOCSLIB.ORG

Organic Law 2-2010 on SRH and Voluntary Pregnancy Termination

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Organic Law 2-2010 on SRH and Voluntary Pregnancy Termination I. GENERAL PROVISIONS OFFICE OF THE HEAD OF STATE 3514 Organic Law 2-2010 of March 3 on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy JUAN CARLOS I KING OF SPAIN To all whom this may be seen or known: Know Ye: That the Legislature has approved and I have given assent to this Organic Law. PREAMBLE I Sexuality and procreation are directly connected to human dignity and to the right to personal growth and development. These entitlements are protected by several fundamental rights, namely those guaranteeing physical and moral integrity and family and personal privacy. Whether and when to have children is among the most personal and private decisions individuals can make. It is also a decision falling completely within the realm of self-determination. Governments are required not to interfere with them and to provide conditions, including counselling and health services, for these decisions to be made freely and responsibly. Protection of this aspect of personal freedom has special significance for women, whose lives are profoundly affected in every way by pregnancy and motherhood. The special connection between women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health is noted by many international instruments. Within the United Nations system, article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted by General Assembly Resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979 establishes that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning”. The Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in 1995, recognizes that “The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence”. Within the European Union, European Parliament Resolution 2001/2128(INI) on sexual and reproductive health and associated rights makes several recommendations to Member States on issues of contraception, unwanted pregnancy, and sex education. These recommendations were based, inter alia, on the huge inequalities experienced by European women in terms of access to reproductive health services, contraception and abortion according to their income or country of residence. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 13 December 2006, ratified by Spain, requires States Parties to ensure that “The rights of persons with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to age-appropriate information, reproductive and family planning education are recognized, and the means necessary to enable them to exercise these rights are provided” and to ensure that these persons “retain their fertility on an equal basis with others”. This Law seeks to adapt the Spanish legal system to the international consensus on these issues by updating public policy and introducing new sexual and reproductive health services. The Law is based on the conviction, validated by current scientific knowledge, that offering adequate reproductive and sex education, ensuring universal access to effective family planning by incorporating state-of-the-art contraceptives to the roster of services offered by the National Health System, and making sexual and reproductive health programs and services available, are the most effective ways to prevent sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, especially among young people. This Law addresses the protection and defense of sexual and reproductive health rights in a comprehensive manner. It introduces into the Spanish legal system the definitions on sexual and reproductive health adopted by the World Health Organization and provides for the adoption of a range of both health- and education- related measures and steps. Consistent with the views prevailing in politically and culturally like countries, the Law strikes voluntary termination of pregnancy from the Criminal Code with a view to more adequately guaranteeing and protecting the rights and interests of both pregnant women and prenatal life. II The foremost duty of legislators is to make the law consistent with the values of society. Legislators must also ensure that law reforms provide certainty and security, as freedom can only thrive on the firm ground of clear, precise legislation. Such is the spirit behind these new regulations on voluntary termination of pregnancy. A quarter century ago, legislators partly decriminalized abortion in an effort to address the social problem posed by unsafe abortions that seriously threatened women’s lives and health. They did so after taking stock of the majority consensus on the relevance of women’s childbearing rights. Resulting Criminal Code reforms made strides by providing women with access to legal, safe abortions upon the occurrence of any one of several events contemplated in the law, including serious risk to the their life or physical and mental health, when pregnancy resulted from rape, or when the fetus was malformed or mentally disabled. However, application of the law led to uncertainty and practices detrimental to legal certainty, with serious consequences to both the security of women’s rights and effective protection of the concerned legal interest. These practices, contrary to the spirit of the law, tended to create a predicament for the health care providers entrusted with providing the medical services required to terminate a pregnancy. The need to reinforce legal certainty in reference to regulations on the voluntary termination of pregnancy was emphasized by the European Court of Human Rights in a 20 March 2007 decision stating that “in such situations the applicable legal provisions must, first and foremost, ensure clarity of the pregnant woman’s legal position”. It also added that “Once the legislature decides to allow abortion, it must not structure its legal framework in a way which would limit real possibilities to obtain it.” In a free, pluralistic and open society it is the role of the legislature, within the range of options allowed under the Constitution, to adapt fundamental rights to the prevailing values and the needs of the day. Application of the law, growing social and legal recognition of women’s autonomy in the private and public domains, and prevailing legal trends in like countries all speak in favor of clearly regulating voluntary termination of pregnancy with a view to adequately protecting both women’s autonomy and prenatal life. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in Resolution 1607 of 16 April 2008, reaffirmed the right of all human beings, in particular women, to respect for their physical integrity and to freedom to control their own bodies. The Assembly asserted that in this context the ultimate decision on whether or not to have an abortion should be a matter for the woman concerned, and invited member states to decriminalize abortion within reasonable gestational limits. This new Law takes especially careful account of the constitutional doctrine laid out in the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal. In Decision 53/1985, the Tribunal, though often divided on substantive questions, did lay out certain principles that were subsequently validated by jurisprudence and which served as benchmarks for this law. One of these principles is that the competing rights and interests involved in regulating voluntary termination of pregnancy are not absolute. As such, the legislature must “balance the protected legal interests and rights at hand and attempt to harmonize them if possible, or if not, spell out the conditions and requirements for one of them to prevail” (CTD 53/1985). Although “the system of laws does not consider the unborn as citizens entitled to the fundamental right to life guaranteed under article 15 of the Constitution”, this is not meant to deprive them of all constitutional protection (CTD 116/1999). Prenatal life is a legal interest deserving of protection. While it is the role of legislators to extend such protection, they must not overlook the fact that the manner in which protection is configured and implemented is always contingent on guaranteeing the fundamental rights of pregnant women. Based on the doctrine in CTD 53/1985 and the qualitative changes undergone by prenatal life during pregnancy, legislators weighed the facts and attained practical concordance between the conflicting rights and interests through a system of gradual protection. This Law recognizes the right to freely decide whether and when to have children. This implies, inter alia, ensuring that women can make conscious, responsible decisions as to whether to carry a pregnancy to term, and that these decisions are respected. Based on expert opinion and comparative law, legislators considered it reasonable to allow a period of fourteen weeks in which to guarantee the right of women to make an informed decision about termination of pregnancy, free from interference. This concept, referred to in CTD 53/1985 as “conscious self- determination”, considers that decisive third-party intervention to shape a pregnant woman’s will provides no significant guarantees to the fetus while needlessly restricting the right to personal growth and development protected under article
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Organic Law 5/1985 of 19 June on the General Electoral System and Its Modifications
    Regulations regarding jurisdiction of the Electoral Census Office in electoral processes Organic Law 5/1985 of 19 June on the General Electoral System and its modifications. Articles 2, 3.2 and 75 Article 2 1. The right to vote corresponds to Spanish people of legal age who are not included in any of the cases set out in the following article. 2. In order to vote, registration in the current electoral census is essential. 3. In the case of municipal elections, including elections to inter-island councils, to the Council of Valle de Arán and to General Councils, it is essential to be recorded in the Electoral Census of Spaniards resident in Spain in order to exercise them. Article 3.2 Those declared to be incapacitated by a court ruling are not entitled to vote, so long as the ruling expressly states incapacity to exercise entitlement to suffrage. Article 75 1. In elections for members of Parliament, Senators, members of the Legislative Assemblies of the Communities of Ceuta and Melilla and Members of the European Parliament, when in the latter case the person opts to vote in Spain, Spaniards recorded in the census of absent voters living abroad must submit their application to vote via official form, sent to the corresponding Provincial Delegation of the Electoral Census Office, no later than the twenty fifth day following calling of the election. Said form shall be sent to those Spaniards registered in the aforementioned Census, notwithstanding it shall be available starting the day following the electoral convocation in the consulates, and may be obtained electronically.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fragility of Gender Equality Policies in Spain
    social sciences $€ £ ¥ Article The Fragility of Gender Equality Policies in Spain Octavio Salazar Benítez Public and Economic Law Department, University of Córdoba, Plaza de Puerta Nueva, s/n, 14002 Córdoba, Spain; [email protected] Academic Editor: Nancy Naples Received: 15 December 2015; Accepted: 20 April 2016; Published: 26 April 2016 Abstract: Within the last decade, Spain has become a model in legislative policies for gender equality at the international level. However, the economic crisis has led to a growth in inequality, which has revealed the weaknesses of the adopted instruments. Despite the large amount of legislation in this area, the social reality has not changed at all, even experiencing a setback over the past few years. This situation was exposed in our country by a report issued in 2015 by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This report showed the negative effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies on women, even in a context necessitating increased efforts towards women’s rights. Therefore, it is imperative that the concept of gender mainstreaming and the adoption of instruments of “hard law” be revisited. The goal should be to achieve gender justice based on three elements—distribution, identity, and representation—and a real parity democracy. Keywords: equality; gender mainstreaming; hard law; justice; economic crisis; parity democracy 1. Introduction In Madrid on 12 May 2009, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in the Declaration “Making Gender Equality a Reality”, highlighted that “the legal status of women had improved over time, but that 20 years after, its Declaration on equality of women and men (Council of Europe, 1988), bridging the gap between gender equality in fact and in laws is still a challenge for its member states.” However, that gap has grown in recent years in Europe: “The European Economic Recovery Plan” does not mention the concepts of “gender”, “equality” or “women”, despite the discrepancies of gender for women and men in the crisis.
    [Show full text]
  • Summary Report of Actions Taken by the Catalan Ombudsman Regarding the Day of October 1, 2017
    SUMMARY REPORT OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE CATALAN OMBUDSMAN REGARDING THE DAY OF OCTOBER 1, 2017 NOVEMBER 2017 SUMMARY REPORT OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE CATALAN OMBUDSMAN REGARDING THE DAY OF OCTOBER 1, 2017 NOVEMBER 2017 Síndic de Greuges de Catalunya 1st edition: November 2017 Summary report of actions taken by the Catalan Ombudsman regarding the day of october 1, 2017. November 2017 Layout: Síndic de Greuges Original design: America Sanchez Cover picture: © Pixabay INDEX INTRODUCTION . 5 1. EVENTS PRIOR TO OCTOBER 1ST . 7 1.1. Freedom of assembly and expression . .7 1.2. Lack of proportionality in actions of the Prosecutor’s Office . 7 1.3. Arrests of elected officials and various searches . 10 1.4. Intervention of the Autonomous Catalan Government . .11 1.5. Constitutional Court fines levied against members of the Electoral Commission of Catalonia . .12 2. THE DAY OF OCTOBER 1ST . 13 3. COMPLAINTS AND QUERIES RECEIVED IN THIS PERIOD . 15 4. EVENTS FOLLOWING OCTOBER 1ST . 17 4.1. Proposal for dialog and investigation . 17 4.2. Order for pretrial imprisonment of Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural presidents . 18 4.3. Application of Article 155 . 18 4.4. Criminal indictment of the dismissed government and Presiding Board of Parliament . 19 SUMMARY REPORT OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE CATALAN OMBUDSMAN REGARDING OCTOBER 1, 2017 5 INTRODUCTION take a number of positions, always with the purpose of protecting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and In the month of April, 2017, the Catalan making repeated appeals for a start to Ombudsman filed in the Parliament of political dialog to resolve the conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • Autonomous Community of Andalusia
    AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF ANDALUSIA Sebastián Cárdenas Zabala Agencia Andaluza de Evaluación Educativa Consejería de Educación de Andalucía Language and Literacy Andalusia is located in the south of Spain and is one of its 17 autonomous regions, having a status of historical nationality recognized by the 1978 Spanish Constitution.1 As the most populated and the second largest region, Andalusia has significant standing within Spain. The official language in Andalusia is Spanish, specifically its Andalusian linguistic modality, the use of which is recognized and protected by the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia (2006).2 Just as in other European countries, the number of schools in Andalusia that have adopted a Content and Language Integrated Learning curriculum, in which some of the curriculum subjects are taught in English, has grown considerably in the past decade. Emphasis on Literacy Since 2007, the Education Department has been developing the Reading and School Libraries Project in educational centers. The aim of this project is to promote the use of school libraries in an effort to increase reading habits among students. Schools play an essential role in fostering positive attitudes toward books and reading and can structure mid or long term global reading projects with the help of adapted and systematic action plans. Schools have some resources via school libraries, which are indispensable for an adequate education of students in a society that demands citizens with skills in research through various information sources, critical selection of information, and autonomous knowledge building. Overview of the Education System The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in accordance with the autonomous territorial structure of the state, has allowed for a great degree of decentralization of education.
    [Show full text]
  • Constitution
    THE SPANISH CONSTITUTION Passed by the Cortes Generales in Plenary Meetings of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate held on October 31, 1978 Ratified by the spanish people in the referendum of December 7, 1978 Sanctioned by His Majesty the King before the Cortes on December 27, 1978 I N D E X Page CONSTITUTION PREAMBLE .............................................................................................................. 9 PRELIMINARY PART ................................................................................................... 11 Part I. CONCERNING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES ................................ 12 Chapter One. Spaniards and Aliens ......................................................... 12 Chapter Two. Rights and Liberties............................................................ 13 Section One. Fundamental Rights and Public Liberties .......................... 13 Section Two. Rights and Duties of Citizens ................................................ 17 Chapter Three. Principles governing Economic and Social Policy .......... 19 Chapter Four. Guarantees of Fundamental Rights and Liberties ........... 21 Chapter Five. Suspension of Rights and Liberties.................................. 22 Part II. The Crown..................................................................................... 22 Part III. The Cortes Generales ................................................................... 25 Chapter One. The Houses of Parliament ................................................ 25 Chapter Two.
    [Show full text]
  • Forty Years from Fascism: Democratic Constitutionalism and the Spanish Model of National Transformation Eric C
    Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons Publications Faculty Scholarship 2018 Forty Years from Fascism: Democratic Constitutionalism and the Spanish Model of National Transformation Eric C. Christiansen Golden Gate University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/pubs Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation 20 Or. Rev. Int'l L. 1 (2018) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at GGU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of GGU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLES ERIC C. CHRISTIANSEN* Forty Years from Fascism: Democratic Constitutionalism and the Spanish Model of National Transformation Introduction .......................................................................................... 3 I. Constitutional and Anticonstitutional Developments in Spanish History ......................................................................... 6 A. The Constitution of Cádiz .................................................. 7 B. The Constitution of 1931 ................................................... 9 C. Anticonstitutionalism: The Civil War and Francoist Spain ................................................................................ 10 D. Transitioning to the Transformation ................................ 15 II. A Modern Spanish
    [Show full text]
  • Mr. Nils Muižnieks Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe
    Mr. Nils Muižnieks Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe The undersigned organizations are writing to urge you to use your mandate to make an urgent appeal to the Spanish government to withdraw proposed changes to Spanish immigration law that would facilitate summary returns from Spain’s enclaves in North Africa in violation of European and international human rights law. On October 22, 2014, the Popular Party Parliamentary Group (Grupo Parlamentario Popular) tabled an amendment to the draft Law on Public Security currently being debated in Congress that would modify Organic Law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their integration. The proposed change reads (the amendment in Spanish is attached): “Additional Disposition 10. Special regime for Ceuta and Melilla Foreigners detected on the boundary line of the demarcation of Ceuta and Melilla attempting an unauthorized crossing of the border in a clandestine, flagrant or violent way, shall be rejected in order to prevent their illegal entry into Spain”.i We are deeply concerned that the amendment would lead to indiscriminate summary and collective expulsions of migrants without an effective remedy. The amendment would allow rejecting individuals at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla without detailing how these would be carried out or providing for any procedural safeguards. The failure to clearly define the “rejection” procedure and lack of any human rights guarantees will deprive asylum seekers of access to the asylum procedure in Spain and could result in refoulement. It could expose both migrants and asylum seekers to the risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in Morocco.
    [Show full text]
  • Organic Law 6/2002 of 27 June, on Political Parties. MOST CONSULTED
    (https://www.facebook.com/NoticiasJuridicasOficial) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/noticias-jur-dicas) (https://twitter.com/NotisJuridicas) (http://noticias.juridicas.com//feeds) (http://noticias.juridicas.com/) (/)Legal News (/) Legislation Organic Law 6/2002 of 27 June, on Political Parties. File Versions / revisions File: Body Head of State Published in BOE (STATE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER) no. 154 of June 28, 2002 (2002‐06‐28) Effective from June 29, 2002. The current revision from April 1, 2015 MOST CONSULTED The CGPJ approves the Regulation 1/2016, developmental status of Territorial Secondment Judges and Judges in Expectation of Destination (http://noticias.juridicas.com/actualidad/noticias/11468-el-cgpj-aprueba-el-reglamento-1-2016-de-desarrollo-del-estatuto-de-los-jueces-de- (http://noticias.juridicas.com/actualidad/noticias/11467-el-tc-presenta-su-nueva-pamp;aacute;gina-web-que-incluye-un-manual-sobre-el-recurso-de-amparo-/) (http://noticias.juridicas.com/actualidad/noticias/11465-black-friday:-consejos-para-comprar-online-de-forma-segura/) (http://noticias.juridicas.com/actualidad/noticias/11452-europa-pide-a-espaamp;ntilde;a-que-elimine-restricciones-en-determinadas-profesiones-juramp;iacute;dicas/) RECOMMENDED LIBRARY (/sys/log.php?tipo=libro&id=415&enlace=https://tienda.wolterskluwer.es/p/el-proceso-de-ejecucion-forzosa?utm_source=noticias%20juridicas&utm_medium=carrusel&utm_campaign=nnjj) (/sys/log.php?tipo=libro&id=415&enlace=https://tienda.wolterskluwer.es/p/el­proceso­de­ejecucion­forzosa? utm_source=noticias%20juridicas&utm_medium=carrusel&utm_campaign=nnjj)
    [Show full text]
  • Law 4/2015, of 27 April, on the Standing of Victims of Crime 2016
    LAW 4/2015, OF 27 APRIL, ON THE STANDING OF VICTIMS OF CRIME 2016 Edita Ministerio de Justicia Secretaría General Técnica NIPO 051-16-008-8 ISBN 978-84-7787-436-2 Traducción Linguaserve Maquetación Subdirección General de Documentación y Publicaciones [email protected] San Bernardo, 62 28015, Madrid El presente texto es una traducción de un original en castellano que no tiene carácter oficial en el sentido previsto por el apartado 1º) artículo 6 del Real Decreto 2555/1977, de 27 de agosto, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Oficina de Interpretación de Lenguas del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación. Esta traducción corresponde al texto consolidado extraído del Boletín Oficial del Estado, siendo su última actualización el 28 de abril de 2015. LAW 4/2015, OF 27 APRIL, ON THE STANDING OF VICTIMS OF CRIME W Ley 4/2015, de 27 de abril, del Estatuto de la víctima del delito Colección: Traducciones del Derecho Español Ministerio de Justicia. Publicaciones Catálogo de Publicaciones LAW 4/2015, OF 27 APRIL, ON THE STANDING OF VICTIMS OF CRIME FELIPE VI KING OF SPAIN To all by whom these presents shall be seen and understood. Know this: That the Spanish Parliament has approved and I do hereby enact the following law: PREAMBLE I The purpose of making a law establishing the legal standing of victims of crime is to offer as broad a response as possible from the public authorities, which not only repairs damage in the context of criminal proceedings, but also minimises other traumatic emotional effects which the victims’ situation may produce, regardless of their position in the case.
    [Show full text]
  • OMBUDSMAN LEGISLATIVE RESOURCE DOCUMENT By
    OMBUDSMAN LEGISLATIVE RESOURCE DOCUMENT by Dean M. Gottehrer © 1998 Dean M. Gottehrer OCCASIONAL PAPER #65 March 1998 ISSN 7116349 International Ombudsman Institute Room 205 D Weir Library, Faculty of Law University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H5, Canada. Introduction Dr. Marten Oosting President of the International Ombudsman Institute In this Occasional Paper the results are presented of a project which consisted of collecting and arranging information from various pieces of legislation from around the world that create ombudsman institutions. The objective of the project was to establish an Ombudsman Legislative Resource Document, in the interest of anyone who contemplates the establishment of an ombudsman and is interested in information that could be of use for the drafting of legislation. The project also aimed to be of relevance for newly established ombudsman offices that are interested in information with the character of a checklist. The project has been carried out by Dean Gottehrer, who is a past President of the United States Ombudsman Association and has worked recently as an international consultant in the field of ombudsmanship. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has made the project financially possible. The International Ombudsman Institute acknowledges with gratitude this support from CIDA. A draft of the results of the project has been discussed by the Board of Directors of the 101 at its annual meeting, October 13-15, 1997, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Board resolved that the work of Mr. Gottehrer fully meets the purposes and that it should get wider circulation, as an KM Occasional Paper. However, the Board and Mr. Gottehrer want to prevent a possible misunderstanding of the document.
    [Show full text]
  • An Organic Law Theory of the Fourteenth Amendment: the Northwest Ordinance As the Source of Rights, Privileges, and Immunities
    THE YALE LAW JOURNAL MATTHEW J. HEGRENESS An Organic Law Theory of the Fourteenth Amendment: The Northwest Ordinance as the Source of Rights, Privileges, and Immunities ABSTRACT. Since the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, judges and scholars have struggled to coherently identify the rights, privileges, and immunities that no state should abridge. Debates over the ambit of the Fourteenth Amendment, however, have consistently overlooked a crucial source that defines the fundamental civil liberties of American citizens. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 contains in its Articles of Compact a set of rights that constituted the organic law - the fundamental law - of the United States. Rather than limiting federal power like the Bill of Rights, the Northwest Ordinance enumerates those rights that no state shall abridge. Not only should these rights qualify for protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, but they also give substance to the terms "privileges" and "immunities" as used and understood by Americans throughout the nineteenth century. This Note chronicles how the rights in the Northwest Ordinance spread, through various acts of Congress, from the Northwest Territory to all corners of the United States. These rights were integral to the organic law of twenty-eight of the thirty states (a supermajority) that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment by 1868. In addition, the admission of new states into the Union was often predicated on two conditions that state constitutions had to satisfy: they had to be republican and not repugnant to the principles of liberty in the Northwest Ordinance. Once they acquired statehood, however, new states were free to change their constitutions and violate the fundamental civil rights enumerated in the Ordinance.
    [Show full text]
  • Spanish Organic Law 2/2012 of 27 April, on the Budget Stability
    CONSOLIDATED LAW Organic Law 2/2012 of 27 April 2012 on Fiscal Stability and Financial sustainability. The Head of State Spanish Official Gazette (BOE) No 103, 30 April 2012 Reference: BOE-A-2012-5730 CONSOLIDATED TEXT Most recent amendment: 21 December 2013 JUAN CARLOS I KING OF SPAIN To all those who see and hear these presents. Be it known: That the Cortes Generales have passed, and I am pleased to sanction the following organic law. PREAMBLE Fiscal stability, as enshrined in the Constitution, is a basic premise for growth and job creation in the Spanish economy, in order to guarantee public welfare, create opportunities for entrepreneurs and offer a future outlook of greater prosperity, fairness and solidarity. Safeguarding fiscal stability is an indispensable instrument for achieving this objective, both in terms of assuring adequate funding for the public sector and the quality public services that underpin the welfare state, and in terms of offering assurance to investors as to the capacity of the Spanish economy to grow and meet our commitments. The process of fiscal consolidation and reduction of public debt which qualified Spain to accede to the European Economic and Monetary Union was one of the principal assets underpinning the long period of Spanish economic growth up to 2008. However, that year saw the onset of a world-wide economic crisis, which was particularly severe in Europe and whose effects were further aggravated in our own economy by the high rate of unemployment, the highest of all the OECD countries. The sharp deterioration of public finances since that year swiftly left the country without any room for manoeuvre in fiscal policy and is now forcing it to undertake severe adjustments in order to return to a situation of budgetary balance and honour Spain's commitments to the European Union.
    [Show full text]