The Supreme Court has annulled the Royal Decree by which the traffic powers until now managed by the Civil Guard, that is, by the general administration of the State, were transferred to the Foral Community of Navarra.
After an agreement between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the Navarrese president, María Chivite, jurisdiction had been transferred.
Now the Administrative Litigation Chamber has ruled in favor of the Civil Guard Justice Association (JUCIL) and has already annulled the transfer made by royal decree.
The magistrates conclude that a Royal Decree of transfer cannot be used to attribute a competence not recognized to Navarra in the LORAFNA (Organic Law of Reintegration and Improvement of the Foral Regime of Navarra) nor protected in its historical Law.
The court adds that these powers may be assumed by Navarra, “but either by reforming the LORAFNA, or by means of an organic law of article 150.2 of the Constitution.”
The ruling highlights that the LORAFNA (equivalent to a Statute of Autonomy) does not include a competency title that is identified with the functions performed by the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard in Navarra. For this reason, the court indicates that the dispute is limited to determining whether, for the Foral Community of Navarra to assume the traffic functions, the Transfer Agreement is sufficient because it already has jurisdiction in that matter as it is part of its historical Law or , in order not to show it off, the reform of the LORAFNA would be necessary.
For the Chamber, the normative reality is that the jurisdiction has always been that of the Civil Guard, with the Foral Police exercising a subordinate function.
Likewise, the ruling rejects the allegation made by the Navarra Foral Community of lack of active standing of the JUCIL association to present the appeal.
The court answers that, “paradoxically, the best defense of JUCIL’s active standing is made by the Foral Community of Navarra itself. To deny it, he maintains that the transfer does not affect the Civil Guard and subsequently, he alleges that the professional, personal and family interests of the civil guards affected by the transfer are satisfied. To do this, he tells us that they will be able to change their functions or continue performing them “in other geographical destinations”, that is, leaving Navarra or, in short, they will be able to join the Foral Police of Navarra.”
And for the court, “it is obvious that any of these alternatives affects, at least, the professional interests of the civil guards and does so to the point of foreseeing their integration into another police force.”
