The Great Distribution demands five reforms from the next Government on a day marked by new consumption habits

The reforms that ANGED has been demanding are grouped into several blocks (deregulation and market unity, commercial hours, taxation, labor/absenteeism, and urban planning-commerce). Currently, there is no “ANGED law” under processing; their demands are channeled in a dispersed manner through state, regional initiatives, and parliamentary motions. Based on what has been located, the landscape and the foreseeable next steps would be, in summary, the following.

1. Deregulation and regulatory simplification

• State level: the Government is developing the so-called “Regime 20” to reduce regulatory barriers and homogenize requirements among autonomous communities, with participation from sectors such as retail trade. In the Senate, a bill on simplification and rationality of citizen procedures has been taken into consideration, already debated and widely supported, which must now proceed with the amendment phase, committee, and report before returning to the Plenary and, if applicable, to the Congress.
• Regional level: in the Community of Madrid, the draft and Government agreement phase of the Law on measures against hyperregulation for economic promotion has been completed; the text has already been sent to the Assembly, where it has been admitted for processing and must go through the ordinary legislative procedure (amendments, committee, plenary).
• Other instruments: several communities (Valencian, Balearic, Canary Islands, etc.) have approved decrees or orders of administrative simplification or support programs for commerce, but these are punctual reforms, not a major general deregulation reform.

Key next steps: in all these initiatives, final approval requires completing the amendment phase in committee, report, debate, and plenary vote in the corresponding chamber, and in the case of regional laws, their publication in the official regional bulletin.

2. Commercial hours and Large Tourist Influx Zones

• ANGED demands more freedom in opening hours and criticizes the existence of hundreds of different regulations on opening on Sundays and holidays. Currently, there is no state reform of Law 1/2004 on Commercial Hours aligned with that request; in fact, a bill by Sumar has been announced in Congress to restrict the liberalization of hours and limit the capacity of some communities to extend openings, which would go against ANGED's demands.
• The policy on hours is moving mainly at the regional level: recent resolutions in the Canary Islands, Valencian Community, or La Rioja modify opening calendars or expand large tourist influx zones. These are decisions already approved and published for 2026–2027, not reforms under debate.

Next steps: as long as a state reform of the Hours Law is not opened, the margin lies in regional commercial laws and annual resolutions on holidays and Large Tourist Influx Zones (ZGAT). Any state initiative that increases freedom of hours should go through registration in Congress, consideration, amendments, and double reading Congress–Senate.

3. Market unity and digital platforms

• ANGED demands that platforms like Shein or Temu bear the same fiscal, customs, and product safety obligations as established commerce. Currently, this is being addressed mainly through European regulations (Digital Services Regulation, digital VAT reform, market surveillance) and their transposition.
• At the state level, the bill to adapt VAT to the digital era, which directly affects e-commerce, was approved in the Council of Ministers, but the initiative expired before completing parliamentary processing, so it would have to be resubmitted as a new project.

Next steps: the Government can reactivate that project or process a new one; in parallel, the Senate has debated motions urging acceleration of financial and sustainability transpositions, but motions only set political positions, they do not directly modify regulations.

4. Taxation and absenteeism

• ANGED's proposals for “more competitive taxation” clash with a state fiscal agenda that partly goes in the opposite direction (greater burden on large corporations). The fiscal reforms seen in the Cortes (for example, bills in the Senate to relieve pressure on SMEs and self-employed through changes in Corporate Tax and Economic Activities Tax) do not specifically respond to large commerce and are still in intermediate processing phases.
• Regarding absenteeism and mutual insurance, current measures are in the realm of reports and management plans within the existing Social Security and risk prevention framework; no ongoing legal reform explicitly includes the agenda proposed by ANGED.

5. Urban planning, commercial implantation, and legal certainty

ANGED's concerns about licenses, opening times of large stores, and legal certainty in planning relate to initiatives such as the PP's bill in the Senate on legal certainty of territorial and urban planning, already taken into consideration and under processing, and multiple modifications of general plans and urban regulations approved by communities and municipalities. These are relevant reforms for the commercial environment but not designed specifically for ANGED.

Practical conclusion

Overall, the reforms ANGED demands are in a fragmented situation: some lines (deregulation, simplification, urban legal certainty) do have texts in advanced processing; others (national freedom of hours, treatment of Asian platforms, specific absenteeism agenda) have not yet translated into concrete bills or have expired. For their eventual approval, it will be necessary for the Government or groups to register initiatives aligned with those demands, overcome the political filter of majorities in Congress and Senate, and territorially, for autonomous communities to modify their own legislation on commerce, taxation, and urban planning.

In current Spanish legislation, there is no autonomous legal category of “economic vice presidency” with a closed catalog of powers. What exists is a Government vice presidency to which, by political decision of the president, functions and portfolios linked to economic policy are assigned (for example, assuming the Ministry of Economy and chairing the Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs). From there, its powers derive from three normative blocks.

1. General regime of vice presidencies (Law 50/1997)

Law 50/1997, of November 27, on the Government, sets the basic framework:

• Art. 3: establishes that the Vice President or Vice Presidents “shall exercise the functions entrusted to them by the President.” That is, their powers are not directly defined by law but by delegation or entrustment from the President of the Government (Law 50/1997).
• If a vice president assumes the headship of a ministerial department, they also hold the status of minister (art. 3.2). In practice, this occurs when the vice presidency is designed as an “economic vice presidency” and is linked to the Ministry of Economy, Finance, or another economic portfolio.
• The same law regulates the collegiate bodies in which it can deploy its coordinating role: the Council of Ministers (art. 5) and, above all, the Government Delegated Commissions (art. 6), which are responsible for studying and resolving matters affecting several ministries, including economic ones.
• Art. 8 allows a vice president to chair the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries, a key coordination piece prior to the Council of Ministers, although this chairmanship can also fall to the Minister of the Presidency.

From this architecture, a central idea emerges: the vice presidency does not have a “closed block” of its own powers, but acts as an element of intermediate political direction between the Presidency and the ministries, with weight depending on the functions the president assigns and the bodies it is made to chair.

2. Royal decrees on vice presidencies

The general scheme of the Government Law is specified in royal decrees that organize the vice presidencies in each legislature. Currently, Royal Decree 830/2023, of November 20, on the Government Vice Presidencies, and its subsequent modifications, develop art. 3 of the Government Law:

• It reiterates that the First Vice Presidency “is responsible for exercising the functions entrusted to it by the President of the Government” (RD 830/2023; RD 255/2026).
• It expressly foresees that the president can assign these vice presidencies the chairmanship of one or more Government Delegated Commissions, a key instrument to configure a vice presidency as “economic.”

Recent reforms have gone in that direction: Royal Decree 255/2026 specifies that the First Vice Presidency of the Government and Minister of Economy, Commerce, and Enterprise exercises, in addition to the functions entrusted by the president, the chairmanship of certain commissions with high economic content (RD 255/2026).

3. Coordination of economic policy: Delegated Commissions

The truly “economic” aspect of the vice presidency is configured through the Government Delegated Commissions and, in particular, the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs:

• Art. 6 of Law 50/1997 establishes that these commissions are created by royal decree and defines their general functions: examine issues affecting several ministries, prepare joint proposals prior to the Council of Ministers, resolve interministerial matters that do not require going to the Council, and exercise other powers conferred by the legal system.
• Royal Decree 1/2024, of January 9, establishing the Government Delegated Commissions, creates and regulates the Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs, attributing to it, in addition to the general functions of art. 6.4 of the Government Law, the study of the general guidelines of the Government's economic policy and the coordination and coherence of the policies of the different ministries with the Government's economic policy criteria (RD 1/2024).
• Royal Decree 260/2026, of March 31, modifies this scheme so that the chairmanship of the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs corresponds to the First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Commerce, and Enterprise (RD 260/2026).

In practice, this means that the economic vice presidency:

• Chairs the collegiate body where all decisions with economic, financial, or budgetary significance that affect the entire economy or relevant sectors are discussed and channeled, regardless of the legal form they take (law, royal decree, agreement, etc.).
• Directs the preparation and monitoring of the major lines of economic policy, being the meeting point of economic ministries (Finance, Labor, Economy, Industry, Transport, etc.) and other departments with economic impact.
• Ensures interministerial coherence of economic measures before they reach the Council of Ministers.

4. Summary: typical powers of an economic vice presidency

Adding the general framework and current regulation, it can be said that an economic vice presidency in Spain typically has:

• Powers derived from the Government Law: all those entrusted by the president (art. 3 of Law 50/1997), including policy coordination and direction of certain areas.
• Own ministerial powers: by integrating the Ministry of Economy (or another economic portfolio), it exercises the regulatory and management powers assigned by laws to that department.
• Collegiate coordination functions: chairmanship of the Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs and other related collegiate bodies (according to RD 1/2024 and RD 260/2026), responsible for:
  • Studying the general guidelines of the Government's economic policy.
  • Ensuring coherence of the policies of different ministries with those guidelines.
  • Filtering and harmonizing measures with economic impact before their submission to the Council of Ministers.

In summary, legislation configures the economic vice presidency more as a center of coordination and political direction of the Government's economic action, built through presidential entrustments and chairmanships of collegiate bodies, rather than as a figure with a closed list of powers directly defined by law.

In Spain, modifying commercial hours (expanding or restricting them) requires respecting a mixed state–regional–local framework, articulated around the Law 1/2004, of December 21, on Commercial Hours, regional internal commerce regulations, and, where applicable, municipal ordinances. This framework sets minimum freedoms and common criteria that communities and municipalities cannot lower, although they can nuance and develop them.^{Law 1/2004}

1. Distribution of powers

• State: establishes the bases through Law 1/2004, enacted under art. 149.1.13ª CE (bases and organization of the economy). It recognizes freedom of hours “within the framework defined by this Law” and sets minimum limits and basic criteria on overall hours, Sundays and holidays, and freedom for certain establishments and zones.^{consolidated text}
• Autonomous communities: have the competence of internal commerce and regulate opening and closing hours “in their respective territorial scopes,” within those basic limits. They develop this in their commerce laws and specific hours regulations (for example, Andalusia in Legislative Decree 1/2012 and Galicia in Law 13/2006).
• Municipalities: usually intervene to adjust specific days and zones: swap holidays within the regional calendar, propose large tourist influx zones (ZGAT), and regulate details in market or activity ordinances.

2. Basic state limits conditioning any change

• Overall weekly hours: communities cannot set a global schedule of working days less than 90 hours per week. Within that maximum, each merchant chooses their specific opening and closing hours on working days.^{Law 1/2004, art. 3; amended by RDL 20/2012}
• Sundays and holidays: the minimum number of Sundays and holidays authorized for opening is 16, which communities can increase or reduce, but never below 10. Each autonomy approves its annual calendar indicating those days; the merchant decides whether to open and at what hours.^{art. 4}
• Freedom of hours for certain establishments: the law recognizes full freedom (days and hours) to:
  • Pastry shops, bakeries, prepared food sales, press, florists, gas stations, etc.
  • Convenience stores and small-sized commerce (less than 300 m² of sales area), with SME requirements and not belonging to large groups.
  • Establishments in stations, means of transport, border points, and notably, in large tourist influx zones.^{art. 5}

3. Large tourist influx zones (ZGAT)

The real extension of hours is usually channeled through ZGAT, a figure reinforced by Royal Decree-law 20/2012 and Law 18/2014, which introduce objective criteria and automatic effects of freedom of hours if at least one zone is not declared in certain municipalities.^{RDL 20/2012; Law 18/2014}

• Who declares: the autonomous community, usually at the proposal of the municipality.
• Legal criteria: Law 1/2004 requires justification that circumstances such as:
  • High concentration of tourist accommodations or second homes.
  • World Heritage or cultural interest assets.
  • Border areas, major sporting or cultural events, ports with cruise ships and high influx.
  • Zones whose main attraction is shopping tourism, or “other special circumstances” duly motivated.^{art. 5.4 and 5}
• Minimum procedure: usually requires:
  • Motivated municipal agreement (plenary or collegiate body) and justificatory report.
  • Regional commerce report and often tourism report.
  • In many regional laws (Galicia, Valencian Community, Andalusia), hearing or consultation with chambers of commerce, business associations, and consumer groups before setting holidays and ZGAT.^{Law 13/2006 Galicia; Law 3/2011 CV; DL 1/2012 Andalusia}

4. How an Administration can change hours

Depending on the government level, typical requirements are:

• State: can only modify limits and basic criteria by changing Law 1/2004 or the norms that have reformed it (such as RDL 20/2012). Any reform must respect the competence distribution established by constitutional jurisprudence in internal commerce and general economic organization.^{STC 140/2011; STC 26/2012}
• Autonomous community:
  • Must respect state minimums (90 working hours; 10–16 Sundays and holidays; freedom in ZGAT and for certain formats).
  • Relevant modifications are made by regional law (e.g., hours laws of Galicia or decree-laws in Andalusia) or regulatory norms (annual calendar orders, development decrees).
  • The laws themselves generally require a justificatory report on impact on commerce, consumers, and employment, and reports or consultations with participation bodies (Commerce Council, business and consumer associations) before approving the new calendar or redefining ZGAT.
• Municipality:
  • Can propose ZGAT or swap some authorized holidays, but always within the regional framework and motivating the decision according to legal criteria (commercial attraction, sales, tourist influx, Christmas campaigns, etc.).^{DL 1/2012 Andalusia}
  • If it changes hours in municipal markets or activities, it must adjust its ordinance to regional hours regulations and the basic state regime.

In summary, today it is only possible to modify commercial hours if the measure remains above state minimums, is adopted through the competent regional or local norm, is supported by legal criteria of consumer offer and tourist influx, and respects the consultation and motivation procedures required by each community's commerce laws.