More than 50 soldiers They are rebelling against the Ministry of Defense, against which they are beginning to file legal appeals, for preventing them serve to NATO “in a situation of special services.” According to them, the department led by Margarita Robles would be restricting their will.
Many of them begin to make these decisions after a court ruling which agrees with two members of the Armed Forces who were denied by the Defense positions within the NATO organizational structure. The military could not be promoted in the Atlantic Alliance without express authorization from the ministry, say the documents to which EL ESPAÑOL has had access.
The most recent was handed down this week by the National Court, a ruling issued by Section 5 of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber. In it the appeal of the State Attorney’s Office against a first sergeant of the Air and Space Army. The soldier’s lawyer is Antonio Suárez-Valdés, lawyer specializing in military police law and the Civil Guard.
The sergeant was stationed at the European Air Group, at the High Wycombe base (United Kingdom), until July 31, 2023. Before that date, he passed the free competitive examination and began serving in the NATO Communications and Information Agency. Subsequently, the Alliance offered him a position as a technical cybersecurity and three-year cryptocurrency analysis.
Therefore, in May 2023, he went to the Undersecretariat of Defense to request that he be granted the status of “special services”, which was denied. Faced with this refusal, this high command came to request a voluntary leave so as not to lose this opportunity but also not to give up his position in the Army.
Law 39/2007, on the Military Career, states that military personnel “with long-term commitments” They may be declared in a special service situation if they are integrated into the NATO organizational chart as part of its statutory staff.
To do so, the Atlantic organization must prove its interest in these profiles and, then, The Ministry of Defense must authorize the process. The latter did not happen in the case of the sergeant nor in that of another commander who also appealed judicially. The National Court agreed with both of them, which now ratifies its verdict again in a new ruling.
In the case of the sergeant, Defense denied his request, arguing that the NATO position he requested was intended for soldiers who had requested the voluntary leaveas the appellant had to end up asking.
The Court rejected this argument and stressed that the position to which he aspired was “a statutory position within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”, which is governed by the aforementioned Law 39/2007. And this rule supports the sergeant’s claim.
For this reason, the Central Contentious-Administrative Court number 10 agreed with him. Despite this, did not condemn the Public Administration to pay all the costs of the procedure because “the controversial issues were not exempt from factual and legal protection, raising doubts that justify the filing of the appeal.”
Defense appealed the decision, which has been ratified again, confirming the right of the Spanish military who go on to hold statutory NATO positions to be able to move to the status of special services.
“Judicial blow”
In the opinion of the lawyer Suárez Valdés, this is “a more than predictable judicial setback. The State refuses to facilitate the entry of its military into NATO, unless it asks for express permission to do so.” According to the complaint, Defense would be preparing a modification of the current regulations, also appealed by his office before the Council of State.
This prohibition is making it difficult to transfer troops from the Spanish Army to the NATO structure.
In the lawyer’s opinion, the position of the Ministry of Defense would border on the administrative prevaricationwhile the current regulations are clear and allow no room for doubt when they expressly state that the Spanish military must move to the status of special services when they perform a statutory position in NATO. And, therefore, the transfer cannot be denied.
Thus, other soldiers who find themselves in the same situation will now claim in turn through the action of this lawyer.
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