The European shield that Spain seeks for Ceuta and Melilla

Based on the information available from the sources consulted, there is no trace of specific initiatives in the General Courts aimed specifically at modifying the Spanish representation in the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), either in terms of the number of members or the distribution between autonomous communities and local entities. What is documented is the functioning of the Spanish delegation and the political weight that the regions try to gain in that forum, but not parliamentary proposals to formally alter its composition.

The political and European analysis articles reviewed describe in quite some detail the current situation of Spanish representation in the CoR, but always in a descriptive key, not legislative reform. It is noted that Spain currently has 21 members in the Committee of the Regions, of which 17 represent the autonomous communities and 4 represent local entities. All of them must hold a regional or municipal electoral mandate, which reinforces the territorial character of the body.

This arrangement is presented as a fact within the European institutional framework: the Committee of the Regions is a consultative assembly intended to channel territorial priorities towards the community institutions, with mandatory opinions on policies such as cohesion, environment, employment, or health. The journalistic texts do not refer to debates in the Congress or the Senate about changing the quota of Spanish seats or the basic criterion of territorial representation.

The political discussion that does appear related to the CoR goes through other channels:

• Increasing the influence of the regions in the drafting of regulations and in the future European budget, but through the action of the autonomous and local leaders themselves in Brussels, not through reforms promoted from the General Courts.
• Strengthening the role of the Spanish delegation within the Committee, for example through the presidency of the delegation or the future presidency of the body itself, but again as a matter of European political balances, not internal legal modification of representation.
• Coordinated positions of the Spanish delegation on European debates (Multiannual Financial Framework, CAP, cohesion, etc.), which are processed as political declarations or position documents, not as legislative initiatives in Madrid.

In parallel, journalistic texts that examine the role of the Spanish Parliament in the appointment of representatives in other European areas (for example, judges in international courts or electoral thresholds in European elections) do mention bills and non-legislative proposals processed in Congress and Senate. This comparison is relevant because it suggests that when there really is a parliamentary offensive to modify the Spanish presence in international bodies, it usually leaves a visible trace both in the activity of the chambers and in the specialized political press.

In the case of the European Committee of the Regions, that trace does not appear: coverage focuses on:

• The profile and ambitions of certain autonomous leaders within the Committee.
• The European political battles (budget, cohesion funds, CAP, defense, etc.) in which the Spanish delegation participates.
• The claim for greater political weight of the regions vis-à-vis the Commission and the Council.

But no bill, organic law reform, motion, non-legislative proposal, or parliamentary agreement explicitly aimed at changing the Spanish representation scheme in the CoR is identified. Nor are recent initiatives described in which the Congress or the Senate demand that the Government promote before the European Union an alteration of that internal seat distribution.

For all these reasons, the prudent conclusion with the available evidence is the following: there is currently no identifiable parliamentary proposal on the agenda of the General Courts whose direct object is to modify the Spanish representation in the European Committee of the Regions. The discussion about the weight of Spain and its territories in that body is taking place, above all, at the political and diplomatic level (autonomous governments, Spanish delegation in the Committee itself, positions before the Commission and the Council), rather than in the form of regulatory reforms processed before the Congress and the Senate.

In the Spanish legal system, the competencies of the Minister of Foreign Affairs are built upon the general regime of ministers (Law 50/1997, of the Government), Law 2/2014, on the Action and Foreign Service of the State, and the royal decrees on the organic structure of the department. Based on these norms, a fairly clear block of political, legal, and administrative management functions can be described.

1. Minister as a member of the Government

Law 50/1997, of the Government, configures ministers as holders of a department with “competence and responsibility in the specific sphere of their action.” In particular, it attributes to them:

• Develop the Government's action within the scope of their department, in accordance with the agreements of the Council of Ministers and the guidelines of the Prime Minister.
• Exercise regulatory power in matters pertaining to their ministry, issuing ministerial orders and other general provisions within their scope.
• Execute the competencies attributed by laws and the organization and functioning norms of the Government, as well as those delegated to them.
• Endorse, where appropriate, the acts of the King in matters within their competence (for example, certain treaties or credentials of heads of mission).

As a member of the Council of Ministers, the head of Foreign Affairs also participates in the approval of bills, royal decrees, international treaties, and other collegiate decisions affecting foreign policy as a whole.

2. Direction of foreign policy and coordination of external action

Law 2/2014, on the Action and Foreign Service of the State, starts from the premise that the Government directs foreign policy (Article 97 of the Constitution) and that external action must be governed by principles such as unity of action abroad, coordination, institutional loyalty, planning, efficiency, and service to the general interest.

Within this framework, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is the central figure in:

• The formulation and execution of the State's Foreign Policy, providing the Government with proposals on objectives, geographic and thematic priorities, and guidelines for action.
• The coordination of the External Action of all public actors (other ministries, autonomous communities, public entities), to ensure that their actions abroad conform to the guidelines, purposes, and objectives set by the Government and to planning instruments (e.g., Foreign Action Strategy).
• Participation and, in practice, political secretariat of bodies such as the Foreign Policy Council and its Executive Council, which ensure the coherence of external action.

3. External representation of the State and international relations

According to Law 2/2014, the external representation of the State vis-à-vis other States and international organizations corresponds to the State and is channeled through the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister:

• Represents Spain in the political-diplomatic sphere in bilateral and multilateral meetings, without prejudice to the intervention of the Prime Minister and the Crown.
• Plays a key role in the relationship with the European Union and relevant international organizations, articulating Spanish action in line with the Common Foreign and Security Policy and international commitments.
• Promotes specific areas of external action: human rights, security and defense in its international aspect, development cooperation, economic, cultural, and Ibero-American diplomacy, in coordination with the ministries competent by reason of the matter.

4. International treaties and other instruments

Law 50/1997 attributes to the Council of Ministers the agreement to negotiate and sign treaties, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs has an essential operational role:

• Propose to the Government the opening of negotiations of treaties and international agreements and the general lines of the Spanish position.
• Direct or commission negotiations, in coordination with the affected departments.
• Sign treaties or agreements on behalf of Spain when authorized or fully empowered, as well as supervise administrative international agreements and non-normative agreements that other administrations intend to conclude.
• Ensure the coherence of international commitments with foreign policy and internal order, and coordinate their monitoring once in force.

5. Direction of the Foreign Service and protection of Spaniards abroad

According to Law 2/2014, the Foreign Service of the State brings together the bodies, units, institutions, and human and material resources that act abroad. Under the Government's dependence, the Minister of Foreign Affairs:

• Directs and coordinates the diplomatic and consular network (permanent diplomatic missions, permanent representations, consulates), ensuring they execute foreign policy and action and coordinate the performance of all state bodies in the host country.
• Is responsible, through embassies and consulates, for the assistance and protection of Spaniards abroad and support for Spanish companies, in accordance with foreign action regulations and specific consular regulations.
• Participates in the planning of Spain's institutional presence abroad, including the prior report on autonomous or other public entity offices outside the national territory.

Overall, the Minister of Foreign Affairs not only heads an administrative department but concentrates the political direction of foreign action, coordination of all public actors abroad, conduct of diplomatic relations, and oversight of the State's Foreign Service, within the Government's collegiate framework and under the principles of unity of action and institutional loyalty established by current legislation.

In the European Union, there is no ordinary “administrative procedure” for a territory to request to be an outermost region (OR) and obtain it; rather, the status of OR is a primary law category defined in the Treaties, and the inclusion or exclusion of specific territories depends on decisions at the highest level (Treaty revision or unanimous decision of the European Council). Even so, the Treaties and European practice allow the material requirements and applicable legal framework to be identified quite clearly.

1. Concept of outermost region in the Treaties

The notion of outermost region is fundamentally defined in the Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), complemented by Article 355 TFEU, which delineates the territorial scope of application of the Treaties. They list the current ORs (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Saint Martin) and establish the basis for specific measures in their favor.

Article 349 TFEU states that, given the structural social and economic situation of these regions, aggravated by factors such as their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult orography and climate, and economic dependence on a limited number of products, the Council may adopt specific measures to adapt the application of EU law to these regions.

2. Material requirements (outermost criteria)

Although the Treaties do not contain a “closed list” of formal requirements, from the wording of Article 349 TFEU and institutional practice, a series of factors emerge that, combined, characterize an OR:

• Significant geographical remoteness from the European continent: the territory is located at a great distance from continental Europe, which impacts transport costs, connectivity, and market access.
• Insularity or isolation: usually islands or groups of islands, or territories physically and permanently separated from the main territory of the Member State.
• Small surface area: the physical size limits the development of certain economic sectors, infrastructures, and economies of scale.
• Adverse orography and/or climate: complex natural conditions (steep relief, natural risks, tropical or volcanic climate, etc.) that increase the cost of infrastructures and public services.
• Economic dependence on a limited number of products or sectors, making the region especially vulnerable to price fluctuations, regulatory changes, or natural phenomena.

These elements are considered as a whole: there is no automatic numerical threshold, but a global political and legal assessment by the EU, in dialogue with the Member State to which the territory belongs.

3. Procedure and competencies for recognition

The OR status is not acquired by a unilateral decision of the territory nor the Member State itself. It is linked to primary Union law, so that:

• The inclusion or exclusion of a territory as an OR implies modifying the list of regions contained in Articles 349 and/or 355 TFEU, or interpreting and adapting its status through high-level decisions.
• Any formal change in the enumeration of ORs requires, in practice, a political agreement of the affected Member State and the other States, and is usually materialized through an Accession or Reform Treaty or a unanimous decision of the European Council, following a proposal from the Commission and consultation with the European Parliament, as applicable.

In practice, the initiative comes from the Member State, which requests the Union to recognize or change the status of a territory, justifying that the outermost factors concur. From there, it is up to the European institutions to politically assess that request and, if accepted, enshrine it in primary law.

4. Treaties and norms regulating the OR framework

The main legal instruments are:

• Treaty on European Union (TEU): establishes the basic structure of the Union and the value of primary law, within which the provisions on ORs are located.
• Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in particular:
  • Article 349 TFEU: defines the outermost factors and empowers the Council to adopt specific measures adapting Union law to ORs.
  • Article 355 TFEU: determines the territorial scope of application of the Treaties and lists the territories applied as ORs.
• Reform and accession treaties (e.g., Treaty of Amsterdam, Treaty of Lisbon, accession treaties of new Member States), which have adjusted the list of ORs and the content of Article 349 TFEU.
• Derived acts (regulations, decisions, specific funds) that develop the legal basis of Article 349 TFEU, creating tax regimes, State aids, and programs adapted to ORs, but which do not themselves change which territories are ORs.

In summary, the material requirements (remoteness, insularity, structural vulnerabilities) derive from Article 349 TFEU itself, while recognition as an OR depends on decisions about the Treaty text and, therefore, on the unanimous will of the Member States within the framework of the Union's primary law.