Chronicle of the arrival and conquest of the Services Directive in the Spanish urban planning law

Abstract

This article is a chronicle of the process of implementation of the Services Directive in the Spanish urban planning law in which can be observed the initial resistance to the new administrative supervision mechanisms, their subsequent arrival and their final application without qualification by the State and the Autonomous Communities legislators. The article pursues to address these issues from a rigorous legal perspective and emphasizes the questions unresolved by the legislator. Moreover, the article points out the new conflict regarding the distribution of competences between the State and the Autonomous Communities, as well as the weakening of the autonomy of local governments that entail the new mechanisms provided by the Services Directive. As a paradigm of this process, the article studies the Autonomous Communities urban planning law which now subject to ex post control the first occupation and use of buildings and other facilities. The article also offers some proposals in order to subject some cases to the traditional ex ante control (urban licenses or authorization regimes) according to the principles of necessity and proportionality

Keywords:

adminsitrative supervision, authorization regime, license, statement of responsibility, previous communication, principles of necessity and proporcionality, constitutional conflict of competences, first occupation and use of building and facilities