Congress creates a medal of merit and will award one to Batet

The Board of the Chamber agreed to create this award at a meeting on March 7, as stated in the Official Gazette, after verifying “the convenience” of Congress having a distinction or award of this type. The medal will consist of an enamel disc 30 millimeters in diameter. On the obverse will appear the coat of arms of the Congress and the legend “Medalla. Congress of Deputies” and will be attached to a ribbon with the colors of the Spanish flag.

Although according to the text that appears in the bulletin published this Friday, the badge will serve to “recognize the exceptional merits” of people “linked to the Chamber or who have carried out relevant activities at the service of it or of the values ​​and principles of parliamentarianism” , the criteria to define these merits will be defined by the Table of Congress. This is stated in the regulation, which stipulates some aspects, such as that requests may not be made, for example, by interested parties. The regulation stipulates that in the first session of the Congress Table a medal is awarded to the outgoing Presidency, which is now held by Meritxell Batet.

“The Medal of the Congress of Deputies will be awarded by the Board, after the processing of a file in which the merits and circumstances that concur in the proposed candidacy are collected, as well as, where appropriate, the documents and reports that are considered timely”, defines the regulation, which adds that the concession files may be initiated at “the request of the Presidency or the Board”.

Some issues are also predefined in the norm, such as that the first medal will be delivered to the “outgoing Presidency”. This is stated in article 3 of the regulation: “The Board of the Congress of Deputies will award the Medal to the outgoing Presidency in its first session.” The medal will also be awarded to all former presidents of the Chamber. From there, only a maximum of 50 of these decorations may be awarded, “to natural or legal persons, public or private, of foreign Spanish nationality”, although in the latter case a report from the ambassador of the country in question will be required. “They may also be granted posthumously,” says the text.

Absence of previous distinctions in Congress

Congress justifies the creation of this medal in the absence up to now of such a distinction in the Lower House. The text argues that there are only distinctions or recognitions “in the field of institutional and inter-parliamentary relations, in which the exchange of gifts, gifts or medals of a protocol nature is usual” but that in no case are they “an award in the strict sense” , since these gifts are not associated with a “value judgment” on the “merits incurred by the people who receive them.”

On the other hand, recalls the Congress, the Board grants some prizes and has requested the Government on numerous occasions to grant specific decorations to the members of the Boards of previous Legislatures or to certain personalities. “With these regulations, the creation of a Medal that constitutes, strictly speaking, an award proper to the Congress of Deputies for those cases in which an explicit recognition by the Chamber of the merits contracted by some people is intended. physical or legal with the parliamentary institution”, reads the text.

Furthermore, in the parliamentary field there are similar medals, the Gold Medals of the Cortes Generales that are awarded respectively by the Senate and the Congress in recognition of people who have carried out actions or services considered meritorious.