The Parliament of the Balearic Islands (Parlament de les Illes Balears) was established on 31 May 1983.
Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
Legislative: Pursuant to Article 30 of the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands, the Parliament has exclusive legislative competences in areas including inter alia spatial planning; public works which are not of general interest to the state; railways and roads; transport by cable and by pipeline; bridges, airports and heliports that are not of general interest to the state; emergency harbours, ports, airports and heliports for sports purposes; agriculture; sports; tourism. Moreover, Article 31 of the Statute mentions areas in which the Parliament is responsible for framing and implementing the legislation defined by the State, such as health; economic affairs; fisheries; social security; civil protection. Furthermore, the Parliament establishes and organises the police force (Article 33), protects and promotes culture (Article 34), is responsible for the teaching of the Catalan language (Article 35) and for education (Article 36). For further information, see the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands (see link above).
Non-legislative: These competences include inter alia the control of the Regional Government and the appointment of the senator(s) who are to represent the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands in the Spanish Senate (Article 50 of the Statute of Autonomy). For further information, see the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands.
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
The Legislative Standing Committees include the Committees for:
- Institutional and General Affairs;
- Finance and Budget;
- Environment and Spatial Planning, including Public Works and Transport;
- Tourism;
- Economic Affairs, including Trade and Industry, Energy, Agriculture and Livestock, Fisheries and Mountain Areas;
- Social Affairs and Human Rights;
- Culture, Education and Sport;
- Health;
- European Affairs.
For further information, see Article 48 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands, available
here (ES).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
The Committee for European Affairs.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
There is no staff specifically dedicated to subsidiarity scrutiny.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): Systematic.
Procedure: Article 112 of the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands provides that the Parliament of the Balearic Islands may be consulted by the Spanish Parliament (Cortes Generales) for purposes of subsidiarity monitoring. The Presidency of the Parliament adopted a resolution on 24 November 2010 laying down a procedure organising the subsidiarity check. The resolution provides that the proposal is registered and forwarded to all the members of the committee that the Presidency considers competent for the matter, to the parliamentary groups and to the Government of the Balearic Islands. The Bureau, by agreement with the Committee of Spokespersons, decides whether the opinion is to be adopted by the plenary or by the relevant committee depending on the urgency involved. An agenda is to be set for the relevant committee within 20 working days of receipt of the document by the Parliament's registry. The parliamentary groups have 15 working days to make any proposals or comments. The Government has ten working days to give its opinion, which is forwarded immediately to the parliamentary groups. The relevant committee examines all the documents sent to it regarding compliance with the principle of subsidiarity and adopts the reasoned opinion, unless this is to be done in plenary. In the latter case, the president of the committee forwards the reasoned opinion to the Presidency of the Parliament for the next plenary assembly. An extraordinary session may be held if necessary for reasons of timing. The Presidency forwards the opinion adopted by the committee or the plenary for consideration to the Joint Committee for European Affairs.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
See the answer to the previous point.
Cooperation/coordination at the central level
EU draft legislation is forwarded by the Spanish Parliament (Cortes Generales) to all Spanish regional parliaments. In turn, the latter may transfer resolutions on the infringement of the subsidiarity principle to the Spanish Parliament within four weeks. The legal basis is found in Act 8/1994 of 19 May 1994, as amended by Act 24/2009 of 22 December 2009, regulating the Joint Committee for European Affairs and bringing it in line with the Lisbon Treaty.
Cooperation/coordination at the cross-regional level
There is some cooperation through the Conference of Presidents of the Autonomous Parliaments of Spain (COPREPA), which provides a forum for the presidents of the regional assemblies to share experiences. In order to facilitate the subsidiarity monitoring by regional parliaments and the cross-regional cooperation in this field, the Parliaments of Aragon and Navarre have published a guide for drafting opinions in the context of the early warning system (GuÃa para la elaboración de los dictámenes autonómicos en el sistema de alerta temprana, available
here (ES)). This guide was presented and discussed at the March 2011 meeting of COPREPA.
Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
The Parliament participates in CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).