Paper Titles & Abstracts

Article 137 of the Spanish Constitution guarantees local autonomy. That autonomy is exercisable by the municipalities and provinces of Spain. The municipality is responsible for the provision of basic local public services and the administration of local interests. The province assists and coordinates their component municipalities to discharge its responsibilities. Despite the ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the autonomy of local government in Spain does not necessarily translate into subsidiarity. The municipalities and provinces of Spain are integral institutions of government but they are, nonetheless, dependant on the regional Self-governing Communities for their allocation of competences. The development of a system of regional governance in Spain has created an intergovernmental patchwork of competences beyond control and coordination over and above the principle of subsidiarity in local autonomy. This paper exposes aspects of the Spanish crisis of local governance in the hope of a constitutional refoundation across the European Union that truly empowers the municipalities and provinces - the local government - of Spain and the rest of Europe.