The Supreme Court has annulled the royal decree of 2022 that regulated the direct granting of subsidies for the digitalization of the productive sector, within the framework of the Recovery Plan financed by the EUby 30.6 million euros, to CEOE, CEPYME and UGTsince no circumstances have been proven that would prevent the ordinary public call procedure provided for in the general subsidy law.
The Contentious-Administrative Chamber considers that invoking as it does The royal decree annulled due to the covid crisis and the war in Ukraine to avoid the public call for subsidies, has no justification at a time when there is already an ordinary development of citizen activities.
In this sense, the Chamber recalls that in the previous royal decree, which made a first direct grant of subsidies to the same three social partners, for the same amount and within the framework of the same plan, the court rejected the appeals presented then because it did understand that there were unique circumstances for not following the public call, because it was in the middle of a pandemic and there were still no vaccines and with important restrictions of great importance. impact on economic activity.
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But these circumstances no longer existed two years later when the royal decree was approved that established the same system of direct granting of subsidies in 2022, which is why it upholds the appeal raised by the National Confederation of SMEs (CONPYMES) and declares it null. .
The Supreme Court’s ruling highlights that the General Subsidies Law and the public call regulated therein should have been respected, without suppression of the reports, consultations and opinions it provides for, without prejudice to the possibility of establishing a reduction in deadlines for them.
It considers that it failed to comply with the procedures established in the general subsidy law, because there is no evidence of accreditation of the circumstances that prevent prior public consultation and the processing of public information. “Thus, as the appellant points out, it cannot be argued that the amount of the subsidiess does not have a significant impact on economic activity, more than thirty million euros to be distributed between two employers and a union organization”, indicates the sentence.
The high court also recalls the report issued by the Delegated Intervention on the regulatory bases for the granting of the subsidy, which stated that The reasons of public, social, economic or humanitarian interest that made the public call difficult were not sufficiently accredited, and that it was not coherent to resort to urgency when already in fiscal year 2020, through Royal Decree 1104/2020, this exceptional case was resorted to for the direct granting of subsidies of a similar nature, purpose and beneficiaries.
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Likewise, the Delegated Intervention, according to the ruling, stated in its report that “it is not understood that new subsidies can be granted when there is no evidence of the implementation of the subsidized activities with the same purpose and beneficiaries, who had anticipated payment of 50%. and as the deadline for eligible expenses on June 30, 2022 and for its justification on September 30, 2022.”
For the Supreme Court, “according to the aforementioned report, the execution of the royal decree” of 2020, which was given “continuity,” cannot be considered exemplary. It also considers it evident that, although it may be evident that both business organizations and the union organization that benefit from the subsidy are representative, constituting social partners, it is also evident that They are not the only interlocutors, so the attribution of a “single position” lacks justification.