Administrative simplification in the area of company incorporation

Sustainable Economy Act (2011)

Act 2/2011, of March 4 on Sustainable Economy [es], lays the foundations for incorporating the abolition of licenses into the regulations of Spanish Public Administrations, and this is expected to have a considerable, and very positive effect, on the processes followed when creating a company. The modifications brought into effect by this Act are as follows:

• The government and the autonomous communities undertake to present draft bills to amend the administrative silence in those procedures that are not considered to be covered for pressing reasons of general interest. These bills must be presented within 3 months and 1 year respectively.
• As regards activity licenses, two articles have been added (namely 84 bis and 84 ter), to Act 7/1985 of April 2 regulating the basic legal framework for local government, so that it is no longer necessary to acquire a license or another type of preventive control except in those cases where the activities may affect environmental protection, historical and artistic heritage, security, or public health, provided that the decision in favor of compliance is justified and in proportion. In the event there are concurrent licenses or authorizations between a local entity and another administration, when justifying the need for an authorization or license, the local entity must expressly state the specific item of general interest that is not sufficiently covered by another pre-existing authorization and which is to be protected.
• When prior authorization is not required in order to exercise an activity, it is stipulated that the Local Entities must establish and plan the necessary communications procedures, and later verify compliance with the specific requirements necessary to carry out the activity in question.