Configuración y régimen jurídico de las competencias impropias de los municipios

Abstract

Over the last few decades, and as a result of Spain's territorial configuration, the local public Administrations have been developing a range of competences that has not always led to coordinated and efficient criteria, thus generating the so-called improper competences exercised by most spanish municipalities, with the consequent non-compulsory expenditure that this entails for the municipal coffers. The correct delimitation of the competent Administration for the exercise of a given competence is not always an easy task, although it has important consequences not only from a legal point of view, but also from a practical and economic perspective, which must be associated with the principles of efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of public services.Numerous factors are involved in the problematic delimitation of municipal competences and generate the existence of improper competences, and this paper analyses those aspects that are directly involved in this situation, in order to seek effective and valid solutions. Only by understanding the causes of the problem and assessing the effectiveness of the measures adopted can we arrive at results that meet the real needs of spanish local city councils. The fact is that the legislative modifications made to the local regime in recent years to tackle these problems have not yielded the expected results, nor have they helped to clarify the powers of the municipalities. The difficulty involved in the necessary delimitation of powers between the different levels of government should not prevent the legislator from seeking effective formulas that lead to practical conclusions, even though this may mean altering some of the pillars that have hitherto been insurmountable in the legal configuration of the powers of the different public Administrations...