The Supreme Court, in its ruling of 9 July 2015, rejects that current legislation confers legislative powers to the Basque Provinces in the budgetary sphere of local authorities, contrary to what occurs in the case of taxation. In keeping with its earlier jurisdiction, the Court argues that neither the Basque Statute of Autonomy nor the basic legislation of the State regarding Local Tax Authorities confer legislative jurisdiction to the provincial institutions regarding the budgets of the local authorities in their respective territory. The High Court of Justice of the Basque Country had found in favour of that attribution to the Provinces in its ruling of 26 June 2013, and which was appealed by the Spanish Central Government.
In its ruling of 16 June 2015, the High Court rejects the appeal lodged by Bizkaia Provincial Council, arguing that the Court should correct the legislative omission alleged in Royal Decree 636/2014, of 25 July, by introducing the provincial safeguard clause, as it found that the preconditions of the law being lacking were not met and which entitle the court to compensate for the lack of legislation, that it could only rule when that omission is considered to be a breach of an obligation expressly envisaged in the law or a rule of European law that is to be enacted or enforced, or when the silence of the law leads to a legal situation being implicitly created that is contrary to the Constitution or to the legal system.
