Constitutional Reform Process in Spain
Constitutional Reform Initiative
The constitutional reform initiative is subject to requirements and constraints common to those instances when subjects can be initiated and authorized to do so.
Timing of the Reform
The constitution prohibits a constitutional reform from beginning “in time of war or under any of the statements provided in art.116.” There must be a position of political normalcy in order to prevent emotional reactions that could alter the decisions of any of the subjects involved in the reform process.
Subjects Entitled to Initiate Proceedings
The constitutional reform initiative is governed by parliamentary regulations. Regarding the government, it is exercised with the mere sending of the draft reform to the House of Representatives for further processing by both houses. As to the parliamentary initiative to reform the constitution, it is attributed to the chambers themselves. Therefore, it is the chamber, deciding whether or not to take into consideration the proposition, which exerts the reform initiative itself.
The rules of Congress provide the only difference with the ordinary legislative procedure, that the proposals from the chamber must be signed by two parliamentary groups or one-fifth of the deputies. With respect to the Senate, rules attribute the ability to present a proposal to reform to 50 senators who do not belong to a single parliamentary group, compared with provisions for the ordinary legislative procedure, which recognizes that capacity to a parliamentary group or 25 senators.
The assemblies of the autonomous communities are only recognized the possibility of requesting the government to adopt a reform bill or refer it to the conference table as a proposed constitutional amendment, delegating to the chamber a committee of three members of the assembly responsible for its defense. However, this possibility is a mere proposal, which does not require either the government to send a bill to reform the courts or the Congress of Deputies to consider the reform proposal presented by the regional assembly. It can therefore be regarded as a limited constitutional reform initiative.
Ordinary Reform Process
The ordinary process of reform, in turn, has several variants. In its basic form, the Bill must be approved by a three-fifths majority of each of the chambers.
The constitution provides for the possibility that the two chambers disagree on the text adopted by each of them. So, in case there is any difference in the text approved by the Senate with respect to that previously approved by the Congress of Deputies, a joint committee of equal representation of deputies and senators is created. Its mission is to achieve a consensus text to be submitted to both chambers in order to be approved by that three-fifths majority.
One must understand that the reform effort has failed if the text before the final vote of the chambers is rejected by any of them. The same applies if the joint committee formed does not reach an agreement on the text to be submitted to both chambers.
However, the constitution provides for a second form for the event that the text is submitted to be approved by both chambers, but without the Senate reaching the required majority of three-fifths of its members. In such cases, and provided that the reform had been gathered in this chamber at least a favorable vote of an absolute majority of its members, Congress can pass the amendment if it reaches a two-thirds majority. This possibility is a last chance to approve the reform that has already begun, so that if no such majority is obtained, the reform would have failed.
The constitution adds a third category within the ordinary procedure, which foresees the intervention of the electorate. Indeed, if requested by one-tenth of the members of either house, the reform already approved by Parliament following the procedures must be put to a referendum for ratification. The request must be made within fifteen days after final approval by the courts.