BOE of today, September 23: the Government eliminates an office of agricultural records and publishes new aid to hire young people

In the Spanish legal system, it is necessary to distinguish between the legal-normative level (what type of regulation is needed to create, modify, or abolish a body) and the parliamentary level (when the Cortes Generales intervene and how). The example of the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) serves to illustrate that an internal office is not the same as a public body with legal personality.

1. Basic constitutional and legal framework

The Constitution assigns the Government the direction of internal and external policy (art. 97 CE) and requires public authorities to act in full compliance with the law and the lawfulness (art. 103 CE). On this basis:

• Law 50/1997, on the Government regulates the organization and functioning of the Executive and authorizes the Council of Ministers to approve royal decrees that establish the structure of ministries and dependent bodies.
• Law 40/2015, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector sets the regime for the various entities of the state public sector (General State Administration, autonomous agencies, state agencies, public business entities, etc.), as well as the rules for their creation, modification, and abolition.

The practical consequence is that:

• Offices without their own legal personality (units within a ministry) are normally created or abolished by Royal Decree or ministerial order, without the need for a specific law.
• Public bodies (such as agencies or autonomous bodies) usually have their creation, basic purposes, and legal type established by law, and their statutes by royal decree. Their abolition or transformation requires respecting that same normative hierarchy.

2. When is there a proper “parliamentary process”?

There is a parliamentary process in the strict sense when the organizational reform requires modifying a law or approving a new regulation with the rank of law. In practice, this occurs in three main scenarios:

• Body created directly by law (for example, as an autonomous body or state agency): its abolition or change of nature (becoming a public business entity, integrating it into another body, etc.) requires a subsequent law that modifies or repeals the relevant provisions.
• Broad restructurings of the state public sector: these are often incorporated into an accompanying law or administrative measures law, or even into the General State Budget Laws, through additional provisions that create, merge, or abolish entities.
• Use of a royal decree-law (art. 86 CE) to urgently reorganize bodies and offices. In these cases, the text enters into force immediately but must be ratified by the Congress within a maximum period of 30 days, and the Plenary may decide to process it later as a bill to introduce amendments.

In all these cases, the parliamentary channel is the ordinary one for any bill or legislative proposal:

• Presentation (by the Government as a bill or by groups as a private member's bill).
• Qualification and consideration by the Congress Board.
• Processing in committee (amendments, working group, report) and debate and vote in the Plenary.
• Referral to the Senate, which may approve, amend, or veto. The Congress has the final say.
• Once the law is approved, the Government issues, if applicable, the development royal decrees that specify the new structure and execute the abolition or modification of the body.

3. What can the Government do without a new law?

If the office is only an internal administrative unit or a management body not established by law (for example, a general directorate or a support office), the Government has a wide margin of self-organization:

• It can reorganize ministries and general directorates through royal decrees of basic organic structure.
• Ministers can create or abolish subdirectorates, areas, or administrative offices by ministerial order, within the framework and limits set by Law 40/2015 and Law 50/1997.

In these cases, there is no specific legislative vote, but there is parliamentary control:

• Oral and written questions, interpellations, and appearances about the reasons, impact, and costs of the reorganization.
• Motions urging the Government to maintain, modify, or abolish certain offices.
• Indirect influence through the approval of the budget of the body or the corresponding ministerial section.

4. Limits and criteria to respect

Both in the creation and in the abolition or modification of offices and bodies, some constitutional and legal limits apply:

• Respect for the law reservation when the law itself has defined the existence or nature of the body.
• Respect for the distribution of powers between State and Autonomous Communities (art. 149.1.18 CE, bases of the legal regime of Public Administrations).
• Principles of effectiveness, efficiency, budgetary stability, and good administration, made explicit in Law 40/2015.

Applied to cases like AICA, if its basic configuration is established by a sectoral law or by Law 40/2015 as an autonomous body, its abolition or transformation would practically require a law modifying the applicable legal framework, followed by the Government's approval of the royal decrees that materially execute the restructuring.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) is the department of the Government of Spain responsible for designing and implementing public policies affecting the primary sector and the entire agri-food chain. Its competences range from agricultural and livestock production to fisheries and aquaculture, including food, agri-food health, animal welfare, and rural development, according to its basic organic structure developed by royal decree and the regulations that modify it.

Functionally, MAPA is organized into several senior bodies (Undersecretariat of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; State Secretariat for Agriculture and Food; General Secretariat of Fisheries; and General Secretariat of Agricultural Resources and Food Safety), which divide the main areas of the department's activity. The State Secretariat for Agriculture and Food, created in the latest reorganization, concentrates the management of rural development promotion policies and coordinates the Directorate General for Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-food Training, reflecting the strategic importance of these matters for the Government.

A first major area of competence is agricultural policy and rural development. The ministry designs and implements the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Spain, through the Strategic Plan (PEPAC) and development regulations (royal decrees regulating direct payments, management and control of interventions, and sectoral aids). This includes:

• Defining and applying aid to farmers and ranchers, adapting regulations based on campaign experience and EU guidelines.
• Promoting generational renewal, modernization of farms, and the economic and environmental sustainability of the countryside.
• Promoting rural development in a broad sense: services, infrastructure, innovation, and living conditions in rural areas.

A second key area is health of agri-food production, animal welfare, and laboratories. Under the General Secretariat of Agricultural Resources and Food Safety is the Directorate General for Health of Agri-food Production and Animal Welfare, which coordinates, among others, a system of reference laboratories and, according to recent regulations, has a specific Subdirectorate General for Animal and Plant Health Laboratories. In this area, MAPA assumes functions such as:

• Preventing, monitoring, and controlling animal and plant pests and diseases, relying on national reference laboratories and collaboration with universities and research centers.
• Developing and applying regulations on veterinary medicines, animal welfare, and biosecurity on farms.
• Coordinating with other ministries and the European Union on food safety and production health matters.

Regarding food, quality, and agri-food consumption, the ministry, through the Directorate General of Food and other bodies, is responsible for:

• Developing and updating food quality standards (e.g., on olive oils, vegetable preserves, or organic sea salt products), as well as labeling and marketing provisions.
• Designing and supporting promotion campaigns for agri-food and fishery products, in collaboration with interprofessional organizations and sector entities.
• Regulating and coordinating control and inspection systems of the food chain, in connection with the Food Information and Control Agency and other specialized bodies.

The third major pillar of the department is maritime fishing and aquaculture, led by the General Secretariat of Fisheries and its directorates general. Among its main competences are:

• Regulating fishing activity and resource management, including vessel censuses, fishing effort rules, and specific plans by species or fishing grounds.
• Regulating and promoting aquaculture, both in its productive dimension and in marketing and external projection.
• Incorporating the environmental dimension into fishing measures, ensuring that marine resource exploitation is compatible with sustainability and conservation.

Additionally, MAPA has a horizontal competence block, which includes:

• Digitalization of the agri-food sector and promotion of data-based systems, channeled through the Directorate General for Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-food Training.
• Agri-food training and professional qualification of sector workers, organized from specific training and horizontal affairs divisions.
• Coordination of extraordinary aid in the face of climatic disasters or specific crises (fires, DANA, pests), through royal decrees granting aid to agricultural and fishing operations.

Finally, the Undersecretariat of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food assumes the internal competences of administrative management of the ministry (human resources, contracting, budget, archives, and publications, among others), ensuring the necessary support to the other senior and management bodies for the fulfillment of their sectoral functions.

Subsidies for hiring young people under 30 years old (Programs of First Professional Experience, Investigo, FSE+ programs, regional and local aids, etc.) are governed by a very similar pattern throughout the territory, supported by Law 38/2003, General Subsidies Law and the specific bases of each call.

1. Usual requirements for the applying administration

a) Being an eligible entity

Depending on the program, beneficiaries usually include:

• Bodies of the General State Administration, public bodies, and institutions of the state public sector (e.g., SEPE's first experience program).
• Local entities: municipalities, provincial councils, island councils, associations of municipalities, local development agencies (example: Lanbide bases or Xunta programs for municipalities).
• Other entities of the regional public sector (employment services, public universities, research entities…).
• In some cases, non-profit intermediate bodies (business associations, foundations, clusters), but for your question we focus on the public sector.

It is usually also required that the activity for which the hiring is done is linked to public or general interest purposes (works and services of general and social interest, social cohesion projects, ecological transition, digitalization, research and innovation, etc.).

b) Legal, fiscal, and budgetary situation

• Is up to date with its tax and Social Security obligations, which is verified ex officio or with certificates.
• Is not subject to prohibitions to obtain beneficiary status (final sanctions for unpaid reimbursements, serious infractions, incompatibilities of senior officials, etc.).
• Complies with the rules of budgetary stability and spending rule when it comes to local corporations (regional and state orders usually expressly refer to this obligation).
• Keeps a separate accounting or specific coding of subsidized expenses, ensuring a “sufficient audit trail,” especially when there is co-financing with the European Social Fund Plus (FSE+) (example: Lanbide bases and regional FSE+ programs).

c) Subsidy management obligations

• Justify the subsidized personnel costs (payrolls, social security, contracts, work reports…).
• Keep documentation for several years (up to 5 in many FSE+ programs).
• Publicize European and state funding (logos, mentions to FSE+ and SEPE/regional employment service).

2. Requirements regarding the hired young people

The calls you mentioned (Youth Guarantee, First Experience, Investigo, and equivalent regional programs) usually set very homogeneous conditions:

• Age: under 30 years old (sometimes between 16–29; in some programs, 18–29).
• Employment status: unemployed persons registered as job seekers in the corresponding public service.
• Youth Guarantee: in many cases, they must also be beneficiaries of the National Youth Guarantee System.
• Previous experience: in several programs (e.g., Galicia, La Rioja) it is required that they have not had “significant” prior work experience or that it is their first professional experience in the field of their studies.
• Training profile: adapted to the program:
  • Research programs (Investigo): university degree, vocational training, or technical profiles in R&D+i.
  • First experience programs in public administrations: studies appropriate to the position (university, vocational training, professional certificates).
  • Local FSE+ programs: young people with different qualification levels depending on the line.

3. Characteristics of subsidizable contracts

The modalities that are repeated in state regulations (Order TES/1152/2021, first experience programs, Investigo, TándEM, etc.) and in regional/local calls are:

• Training contract for obtaining professional practice:
  • Typical duration of 12 months in first professional experience programs.
  • Full-time in most calls.
• Full-time temporary contracts for works and services of general and social interest (local employment plans, youth employment programs in municipalities).
• Combined employment and training programs (TándEM, experiential programs), where part of the time is dedicated to formal training and part to paid practice.

Many calls also require that the entity:

• Maintain the contracts during the minimum subsidized period (if there is early termination, replacement or aid reduction is usually required).
• Not use the young person to replace structural staff or eliminate existing positions.

4. Co-financing and incompatibilities

• Many of these aids are co-financed by the FSE+ (2021–2027), so its rules apply: eligibility of expenses, justification deadlines, accounting traceability, etc.
• It is a general rule that the same salary costs cannot be financed with two different subsidies. The bases usually declare incompatible:
  • This aid with other subsidies or bonuses covering the same salary or Social Security cost.
  • Other aids for the same job position or for the same young person in the same period.
• In specific programs, it may be incompatible to be considered an “enterprise” for State aid purposes (e.g., in Investigo for certain public entities operating in the market).

In summary, for a public administration to access this type of subsidies it must: be an eligible entity according to the call, be solvent and up to date with its obligations, properly justify costs, respect stability and subsidy rules (LGS), and hire unemployed young people under 30 under the modalities and conditions set by each program, usually linked to Youth Guarantee and obtaining quality first professional experience.