Chapter 9: Spain

(continued)



MAPPING AND EVALUATION OF OPPORTUNITIES

The following charts are an illustration of the opportunities that exist in practice for public participation in key decisionmaking processes in Spain. Public participation in international decisionmaking and on the management of environmental funds has not been included due to the non-existence of such opportunity. Regarding environmental funds coming from the Structural Funds, it has to be mentioned that the EU regulations at this regard, which provide for an invitation for the different countries to allow certain participation of NGOs in the Monitoring Committees, have not yet been implemented in Spain.

Scale of evaluation used: 1 never, 2 rarely, 3 sometimes, 4 usually, 5 always.

TABLE 4: Preparation and Approval of National, Regional and Local Laws and Regulations*
  Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal) Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping) Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives) Evaluation of the alternatives Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative) Execution of the selected alternative Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)

Phases of Decisionmaking
LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Adequate notification (right to be informed) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Access to information (right to access to information) 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

* The opportunity for the public to participate within this chart appears before the national parliament or regional parliament or the local council initiates the decisionmaking process regarding the adoption of a law or regulation. This participation happens through a public initiative, promoting at the national or regional level that the national or regional parliament takes a decision on whether initiate the legislative procedure or by making comments to a governmental draft proposal to the parliament just before submitted to the parliament within a nonbinding consultative process.

TABLE 5: Preparation and Approval of National, Regional and Local Policies, Strategies, Programs and Plans
  Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal) Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping) Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives) Evaluation of the alternatives Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative) Execution of the selected alternative Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)

Phases of Decisionmaking
LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Adequate notification (right to be informed) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Access to information (right to access to information) 2 2 2 2 2 2 4

TABLE 6: Preparation and Approval of Territorial Plans (Including Spatial/Local Land-Use Plans)
  Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal) Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping) Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives) Evaluation of the alternatives Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative) Execution of the selected alternative Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)

Phases of Decisionmaking
LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard) 1/3* 1 1/3* 1/3* 3 1/3* 1/4*
Adequate notification (right to be informed) 1/3* 1 1/3* 1 4 1/3* 1/4*
Access to information (right to access to information) 4/5** 1/5** 5 5 5 5 5

* local land-use.
** the process is legally transparent because it has been included in a Law/decree, nevertheless, sometimes in practice there are real obstacles to access to the information in an appropriate way, these obstacles include the following: no photocopy facilities available, timetables set out to consult the information, etc.

TABLE 7: Environmental Impact Assessment, Siting and Permitting
  Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal) Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping) Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives) Evaluation of the alternatives Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative) Execution of the selected alternative Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)

Phases of Decisionmaking
LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard) 1 3 3 3 3 3 3
Adequate notification (right to be informed) 3 3 3 3 4 3 4
Access to information (right to access to information) 3 3 3 3 5 5 4


REC * PUBLICATIONS * DOORS TO DEMOCRACY - WESTERN EUROPE * SPAIN

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