The Parliament of La Rioja (Parlamento de la Rioja) was established in 1982.
Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
Legislative:The Parliament has broad competences in a wide range of areas including economic development, internal trade, tourism, public works and agriculture. The legal bases of these competencies are found in the 1978 Spanish constitution and the La Rioja Statute of Autonomy, Articles 8-14, available here (ES).
Non-legislative: The Parliament is inter alia in charge of controlling and supporting the Government of La Rioja.
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
Relevant committees/working groups include inter alia:
- Committee for Institutional Affairs, Statutory Development and the Public Administration System;
- Committee for Petitions and Protection of Citizens' Rights;
- Committee for Justice, Youth and Sport;
- Committee for Finance and Budget;
- Committee for Public Works and Local and Regional Policy;
- Committee for Education, Culture and Tourism;
- Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and the Environment;
- Committee for Health and Social Services;
- Committee for Industry, Innovation and Employment.
For further information, see here (ES).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
There is no separate committee specifically in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
Responsibility for subsidiarity monitoring rests with the parliamentary management service, which is composed of one expert, two administrators and two assistants.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): Systematic.
Procedure: The procedure is governed by a resolution of the presidency of the Parliament of La Rioja of 6 February 2012, available here (ES)). The parliamentary management service is responsible for monitoring subsidiarity. The procedure takes four weeks. The EU draft legislative act is transferred to the parliamentary groups and to the relevant committee. The draft is also forwarded to the Regional Government. There is a timeframe of ten days to formulate observations on whether the draft is in line with the subsidiarity principle and the competencies of La Rioja. If there are observations, the relevant committee adopts a reasoned opinion which is sent to the National Parliament.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
The drafts sent to the Regional Parliament by the National Parliament are in turn forwarded to the Regional Government.
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 and Resolution of the Parliament of La Rioja of 6 February 2012.
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
There is no such cooperation or coordination, except for the Parliament's participation in CALRE (the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).
