The Vice-President of the Government, Ms Sáenz de Santamaría, said that the new legislation introduces supervisory and transparency mechanisms in the fiscal policies of Spanish public authorities and complies with the European Directive establishing the need to have independent fiscal institutions.
Minister for the Treasury and the Public Administration Services, Cristóbal Montoro, asserted that "this is a body that responds to the government's need to strengthen Spain's institutional architecture in favour of budgetary stability in all our public administration services". "We will have the most advanced fiscal authority in the developed world", he stressed. Cristóbal Montoro reiterated that the scope of action of this entity will extend to the entire public sector, it is functionally independent and autonomous vis-à-vis the public authorities, and enjoys a specific regime in terms of its unique and exclusive nature. "It will guarantee compliance with the principles of budgetary stability and financial sustainability and to that end will be staffed by personnel with the greatest experience and knowledge" that will contribute to "overcoming the economic crisis from parameters of reliability and confidence".
Included in its functions, and according to its own initiative, will be preparing reports and formulating opinions on those matters provided by law, reporting on macro-economic forecasts, the programme of budgetary stability and its execution, public debt and rules on spending. It will also issue public reports to assess the establishment of the individual objectives of the autonomous regions.
The Independent Fiscal Responsibility Authority will be attached to the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Administration Services and answer directly to the minister thereof. It will be headed up by a chairman assisted by departmental directors. They will all be appointed by the Council of Ministers from among people with a minimum of ten years' professional experience in areas of budgetary, economic and financial analysis of the public sector. Cristóbal Montoro stressed that the chairman will be elected for a renewable period of three years, with a maximum term of office of six years, and hence "will not coincide with the end of a legislature" to thus "guarantee its objectivity and independence".
Full press release
© La Moncloa - Government of Spain
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