The Relations of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands in the European Integration Process

Abstract

From the point of view of the European political decentralisation process, the relations system between the Government of the Canary Islands and the National Government in both phases of the Community Law, primary and secondary phases, are analysed. The chances of participating in the Community rulemaking process that the Government of the Canary Islands has also been evaluated.

As a consequence of the silence of the SC of 1978, the analysis starts from sections 37 and 38 of the SACI and focuses especially on the legislative proposal of the reform project of the aforementioned Statute in 2006. The latter was never passed because it filled the void of the SC. In particular, we shall consider the innovations that the passing of this reform would have meant regarding the new faculties conceded to the Canary public powers in both phases of the Community Law—the primary and secondary phases. In the last section, whether the reform project specifies much more than the Statute of Autonomy, in force today, is considered, in addition to the presence of the Canary public powers before the Community Institutions.

In essence, it is concluded that the reform project fits the political decentralisation process characteristic of the European Union. However, until the power territorial organisation model in Part VIII of the SC is redefined and the State of Autonomies is integrated into one of the federal models classifications, passing these reform project of the Statute of Autonomies is, obviously, going to be a difficult task.