During its meeting on 31 May, the Spanish Cabinet agreed to lodge an appeal on constitutional grounds against Provincial Regulatory Decree 2/2013, of 26 February, which determines the application of new taxes in the province of Bizkaia. In particular, the provision established the application in Bizkaia of the latest different taxes introduced by the State in the sphere of the Common Tax System Territory: the tax on gaming activities, and the tax on deposits in credit institutions and the three energy taxes – on electricity production, on the production of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from nuclear power generation, and on the storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in centralised facilities.
The appeal will be first time that the reform introduced in the regulations of the Constitutional Court brought about by Act 2/2010, of 19 February, known as the “shielding of the Basque Economic Agreement”, has been applied. Pursuant to that legislation, any challenges to the provincial tax legislation came under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court to the detriment of the ordinary court system. As is known, that Act is pending analysis by the Court itself, in the light of the appeals submitted by the Autonomous Communities of La Rioja and of Castilla-León.
