The General Director of Legal Services of the Government of Aragón, Juan Pérez Mas, has emphasized the relevance of this department as a guarantor of legality and as a key piece in the procedural defense of the interests of the Autonomous Community.
He has presented this during his intervention before the Institutional and Statutory Development Commission of the Cortes of Aragón, where he detailed the main lines of work planned for his General Directorate throughout the current legislature.
In his appearance, Pérez Mas has insisted that the essential function of the General Directorate is "to guarantee the legality of the administrative actions of the Government of Aragón and of the autonomous public sector," in addition to assuming the defense in the courts of the interests of the autonomous community, the Aragonese Executive, and the autonomous public sector.
He has specified that the General Directorate of Legal Services is a body of a transversal nature and technical-legal profile, with tasks of legal assistance of special importance for the autonomous Administration, apart from political or administrative management.
Likewise, he has recalled that its organization and competencies are included in the autonomous regulations, which attribute to it the representation and defense in court, as well as the direction and coordination of consultative and contentious legal assistance of the autonomous community and its institutional public sector.
"The main mission of the General Directorate of Legal Services is to defend the general interest and ensure the full submission of the Government of Aragón to the Law and to Law," the general director emphasized during his presentation.
Due to this marked technical nature, he has highlighted the high qualification of the professionals who make up the Legal Services of the Government of Aragón. Currently, the General Directorate has 24 lawyers from the autonomous community and eight administrative support officials, distributed among Zaragoza, Huesca, and Teruel.
The lawyers access through "highly demanding" selective processes and "carry out their work under the principles of unity of legal criteria and functional independence."
Guaranteeing legality
In the advisory field, the General Directorate offers legal support to the different departments through the preparation of reports, direct advice, and participation in collegiate bodies. In certain matters, this advisory function is mandatory by legal or regulatory mandate, as is the case with bills and regulations, the regulatory bases for public subsidies, procurement specifications, and other administrative actions of special relevance. In other cases, consultation is optional and depends on the criteria or needs of the managing bodies.
The reports are not binding, unless a norm provides otherwise, although the Administration must justify any decision that deviates from its content. The advisory activity maintains an upward trend, with more than 700 legal reports on average annually and the forecast of reaching about 800 in 2026.
Alongside this task, the General Directorate participates in numerous collegiate bodies of the autonomous community, such as the Advisory Council of Aragon, the Public Procurement Board, the Competition Defense Tribunal, the Aragonese Sports Tribunal, or the boards of directors of various autonomous commercial companies.
In addition, since this legislature, it integrates the Commission of Technical General Secretaries, "with the aim of reinforcing the legality of the decisions that are raised to the Government Council."
Procedural Defense
The procedural defense before the different jurisdictional orders constitutes the main aspect of the work of the Legal Services of the Government of Aragon, which in the last four years have assumed an average of 2,816 cases annually, with around 120 lawsuits per lawyer per year.
The majority of these proceedings fall within the contentious-administrative jurisdiction, with an estimated annual average of 1,250 cases in that period. Following are civil jurisdiction, with about 550 proceedings per year; social, with 500; and criminal, with approximately 250.
The general director has also referred to the participation of the Legal Services in various proceedings before the Constitutional Court, both through the filing of appeals and in the defense of norms approved by Aragón. Among the highlighted cases, he mentioned the defense of the Energy Law of Aragón --Law 5/2024, of December 19, on measures to promote energy communities and industrial self-consumption in Aragón--, whose lifting of suspension was agreed upon by the High Court. In the last three years, there has also been intervention in processes before the Court of Auditors.
He has also recalled the work carried out by the General Directorate in the legal protection of public employees when they are involved in proceedings arising from the legitimate exercise of their functions.
This assistance is provided to public employees who request it, provided that it has the approval of their department and the prior authorization of the General Directorate, in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
At the end of his speech, Pérez Mas emphasized the need to have a highly specialized technical structure that ensures the legal security of public action and provides an effective defense of the interests of Aragón before the courts, contributing to the proper functioning of the Administration and the strengthening of the Rule of Law in the autonomous community.
Positioning of the groups
The CHA deputy Mary Carmen Bozal has asked to know "the resources that the General Directorate has and the specific commitments it assumes for this legislature," reminding that "the quality of its work depends on decisions of general interest for the citizens and for public law."
The spokesperson for Aragón-Teruel Existe, Tomás Guitarte, has defined the legislature as "conflictive" and has expressed his concern "about the legal action on the issue of the distribution of migrants, where there will have to be a lot of litigation if we want to maintain the constitutional nature of the measures that are taken."
From the PP, Elena Allué has thanked the work of the group of lawyers who operate in the Community because "behind political decisions there is work that is rarely seen but is essential." Likewise, she has emphasized that "the advance of the general elections by Pedro Sánchez connects directly with the issue of today's appearance."
The socialist deputy Darío Villagrasa has conveyed to Pérez the support of the PSOE, considering that "believing in the Administration, in its lawyers and in its professionals means believing in the institutionalism of this Community," especially "in a horizon where the legal part has increasingly gained more space over the political part and the ordinary management of the Administration itself."
For her part, the Vox parliamentarian Ana Pardo has highlighted "the importance of legal services in Aragón," while pointing out that "an Administration that legislates rigorously manages to substantially reduce conflict and offer greater legal security to citizens."