The Board of Congress will henceforth begin to expressly detail the reasons that support each of the extensions of the deadlines for submitting amendments to bills. With this change, the governing body of the Chamber adapts to a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court, which warns that extending these deadlines automatically, repeatedly, and without specific justification violates the rights of deputies to fully carry out their parliamentary functions.
The Constitutional Court adopted this resolution upon upholding a protection appeal filed by the PP against an agreement by the Board of the Congress that decided to extend up to 71 occasions, and without any explanation, the amendment period of a bill that the Plenary had agreed to process under the urgency procedure, which implies reducing ordinary times by half.
This legislative initiative was admitted for processing by the Lower House in the past legislature, in 2020. However, the chain of successive extensions of the amendment period ended up causing the proposal to lapse at the close of the legislature in May 2023, when the general elections were called and the texts that were still being processed expired.
Armengol assumes the criterion of the Constitutional Court
The Board of Congress, headed by the socialist Francina Armengol, has taken note of the Constitutional Court's ruling and, as is customary with this type of resolution, has forwarded it to the Chamber's legal services for analysis and knowledge.
In this way, and following the recommendation expressed by the TC, the Board of Congress will explicitly motivate each extension of the amendment deadlines for the different legislative initiatives, as confirmed by parliamentary sources consulted.
The same sources have underlined that the Constitutional Court's ruling does not correct the Congress's Regulations, since what was being applied was the doctrine established by the Board that was chaired by the 'popular' Ana Pastor. However, the ruling does clearly establish that the successive postponements of the amendment deadlines must be duly justified and supported by concrete reasons.