Congress will hold an extraordinary plenary session on Wednesday to debate the entire amendments to the Amnesty Law registered by the PP and Vox, the deficit objectives and what is known as the ‘expenditure ceiling’ and the validation of three decree laws approved by the Government last December, including that relating to measures to alleviate the effects of the economic crisis.
This plenary session has to be held at the Senate headquarters because the Congressional chamber will be under construction throughout January due to the installation of touch screens in the seats.
Formally, the agenda for this first Plenary Session of the year will be set by the Board of Spokespersons on the 9th, but parliamentary sources have stated that the forecast is that, in addition to the complete amendments with alternative text to the Law of Amnesty takes advantage to introduce more issues.
And the idea is to call another plenary session this month to debate the reform of article 49 of the Constitution aimed at replacing the term “handicapped” with “people with disabilities.”
This constitutional modification was registered with the signature of PSOE and PP last week, after the agreement reached before Christmas by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and head of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Both agreed that the taking into consideration of this initiative, which will be processed through the urgent procedure, would be debated in a monographic plenary session, which is scheduled for January 16, also in the Senate. Therefore, all other issues that the Plenary has pending discussion will be debated on the 9th.
Thus, on Wednesday the entire amendments to the Amnesty Law will be addressed, which will foreseeably be rejected by the majority of the investiture, except for the Canarian Coalition, which is against this measure.
The validation of three decree laws approved by the Government will also be debated, which must obtain the approval of Congress within a maximum period of one month to remain in force. These are those related to urgent measures for the conciliation of family and progressive life, those aimed at facing the consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and another for the digitalisation of the Administration of Justice.
The decree on conciliation includes the unemployment benefit reform, which was scheduled for the end of 2022 and is necessary for Spain to access the fourth disbursement of European funds in the amount of 10 billion euro. The decree introduces new groups that can receive this benefit and also extends breastfeeding leave up to a total of 28 days for all workers.
For its part, the new decree law on anti-crisis measures includes the extension of the reduced IVA on basic foods, pasta and oils, and modifies this same tax on electricity and natural gas bills — which go from 5% to 10%, compared to the original 21% before the energy crisis– and includes free Cercanías and the 50% reduction in regional transport.
Likewise, today, the urgent measures for the execution of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan in matters of public service of Justice, public service, local regime and patronage will be discussed, which, among other things, includes a battery of measures for digital transformation and procedural of the Administration of Justice.
The agenda will also include the debate and vote on the budget stability and public debt objectives for all administrations, a first step in the processing of the General Budgets that the PP could overthrow with its absolute majority in the Senate.
Likewise, the Rebalancing Plan will be discussed, a budget planning roadmap for the next triennium, known as the ‘spending ceiling’ but which is not put to a vote.
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