A year ago, the government approved by decree the recent reform of the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation to renew its administrative board and its presidency, which also preserved another quick way to make this possible through a new historic mandate. The previous version of this standard regulating RTVE’s public service principles has been extended since 2017, when it expired, and the feasibility of a new landmark mandate would open the door to approving a program contract essential for funding according to current needs. The parliamentary renewal of its governing body and the presidency of the institution has taken place in due course, but the formulation of a new proposal for a historic mandate is still awaited. Last May, the Administrative Council referred it to the Cortes, and from here Mars began a winding process that could have been accelerated in Congress.
Among the amendments made to the government decree is a change in Article 4 of it State-owned radio and television law. This article now allows the proposed framework mandate to be transferred directly to the plenary session of Congress and any amendments to be made “which, in this case, will be constituted by parliamentary groups for approval or rejection.” But it is the Senate-based RTVE Oversight Committee – where the PP and VOX eat up the majority of its members – that will initiate the parliamentary process through a specific subcommittee. It is a process that can take a long time as happened in the previous legislature, where another similar subcommittee formed in 2021 ended without results “due to dissolution” before the elections on July 23, 2023.
The new proposal for a historic mandate was approved last May 13 by 11 votes to one, with three abstentions on the RTVE Board of Directors, with the majority of representatives proposed by parliamentary investment groups. It was transmitted by the Board of Directors of the Company to the Cortes on the 23d of May by this order: First, to Congress, at 12.53 of that day; Half an hour later, in the Senate; Finally, the Chairmanship of the RTVE Monitoring Committee, based in the House of Representatives and chaired by PP Senator Antonio Silvan. The Administrative Council unanimously agreed to hand it over to three parties. Parliamentary sources explain that from the Congressional Office, the proposal was instead referred to the Mixed Committee “because, in its general nature, it is the body responsible for relations with RTVE.” These matters themselves are important: “This body has, a priori, the authority to promote this process.”
The President of the Senate, Pedro Roland (PP), received a proposal on the new mandate of the RTVE Board of Directors, which was sent to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee after a document from the Council of the Upper Chamber last May 27. The resolution was initialed in a resolution reached in the country in which it was also announced that the proposal would be transferred to the parliamentary groups, as well as that “this agreement would be sent to the Congress of Deputados”. Various groups that are part of the committee admit that the arrival of the new historic mandate was due to “stalemate”, without meeting the expectations of the decree approved a year ago.
Having been consulted by this periodical about the procedures followed in the new subcommittee and in the lower Pleno de la Cámara, parliamentary sources indicate that there is a resolution from the congressional and Senate tables approved in 2007 that specifies how the historic mandate proposal “approved by the Mixed Commission will be presented, respectively, to the Pleno del Congreso and the Senado for discussion and voting, without breaking the offer or voting on special votes at this stage.” Therefore, this decision stipulated that it would be approved in the parliamentary committee if it was voted on in Congress as expected, but the decree was approved a year ago by the government that reformed it. State-owned radio and television law Identify another possibility. The new wording of Article 4 of the rule as in the decree: “The proposal for the historic mandate will be submitted to the Pleno del Congreso de los Deputados, together with the proposals to amend it which, in this case, will be formulated by the parliamentary groups for approval or rejection, by absolute majority. The resulting proposal will be submitted to the decision of the Senate, which can approve, veto or amend it by absolute majority, within 20 days.”
The work of the Subcommittee on this planet has been set up without a clear horizon of completion. Sources of PSOE parliamentary groups and members of the Monitoring Committee admit that the process could be accelerated in Pleno del Congreso, but it meets expectations on how the sessions will be held organically. “If we sense a clear desire to unjustifiably delay work, we will have to propose several alternatives,” says the committee’s socialist spokesman, Vicente Sarria. He added: “In the previous legislative council there was a sufficient presence and information center. Now we will not question the work of the committee, but we hope that there will be a commitment from this to speed up this process as much as possible, and that at the latest, after a period of parliamentary inactivity, we can obtain a document to submit to Congress.” On the other hand, Somar’s spokesman in the same committee, Francisco Sierra, is also in favor of starting work on its progress, although he warns: “If there is no two-month period, after the money, a response with the document will be requested to the Congressional Office to process the new historical authorization in accordance with the decree. This is not the time to start the subpoena, but to draw up a calendar.”