The problematic transparency of the Spanish Royal Household

Abstract

Law 19/2013 subjects the Royal Household to the obligations of transparency, without its provisions having been considered unconstitutional. In view of the scandals aired by the media, with a wide impact on public opinion, arises the convenience of extending transparency to issues such as the use of public funds received, the perception of income outside the General Budgets of the State and the registry of goods of the members of the Royal Family. In the XII legislature of the Spanish Congress (2016-2019), four of its members, framed in the Mixed Group, presented a bill that sought to expand the existing transparency control in order to improve effective knowledge on the aforementioned issues, but the full debate on such a proposal was rejected by the Congress Board on the grounds that it presented a clear and evident contradiction with articles 56.3 and 65.1 CE. The proposing Members of Parliament, after not obtaining reconsideration of their decision by the Board, appealed to the Constitutional Court, which dismissed the pertinent appeal without ruling on the merits of the controversy raised. Thus, a debate has been temporarily closed, that of the improvement of the transparency of the Royal Househol with respect to the minimums set in Law 19/2013, which has not wanted to be addressed by the majority political formations neither by the Constitutional Court, nor does it seem to have aroused the interest of scientific doctrine, given the absence of recent reflections on the matter.