A rural proofing mechanism to enhance special financial and taxation policies in areas with demographic singularities: the case of Castile and Leon

Abstract

[EN] Most of the Constitutions of Western and democratic States, as is the case in Spain, devote their first articles to the configuration of the State. The recognition or not of certain fundamental rights and guarantees, the direction of public, economic and social policies, as well as the structure of its tax system and its influence on the execution of these public policies will depend directly on this configuration. The Spanish Constitution approaches it in art. 1.1, where it configures the Spanish State as a social and democratic State governed by the rule of law and establishes that the higher values of its legal system are freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism. Hence, the Spanish tax system is configured in art. 31 as a fair tax system inspired by the principles of equality and progressiveness which, under no circumstances, will have a confiscatory scope, and public spending, for its part, will make an equitable allocation of public resources, despite the fact that it is established that its programming and execution will respond to the criteria of efficiency and economy. In addition, Europe has safeguarded in the TFEU the possibility for States to apply differentiated public policies in territories with special characteristics, which is why in the sections on aid granted by States (art.107.3), economic, social and territorial cohesion policy (art. 174) and the general and final provisions of the Treaty (art. 349), the Union allows that in territories characterised by their great remoteness, insularity, small size, serious underemployment, adverse topography and climate, economic dependence on a small area, serious underemployment, adverse topography and climate, economic dependence on a small number of regions or territories with special characteristics to design and apply differentiated public financial and fiscal policies. The development of the above, in Spain, is not only reflected in the differentiated economic and fiscal regime of the Canary Islands (insularity, outermost region), it also applies to Ceuta and Melilla as provided for in the Fifth Additional Provision of the LOFCA and the Second Additional Provision of their respective Statutes of Autonomy (serious situation of underemployment), and to certain provinces classified as “c zones” or sparsely populated areas (serious demographic disadvantages) like Castile and León, the development of the latter idea is the aim of this scientific contribution.