A court, a date and a sentence marked in red is already on the calendar. It will be on June 8, it will be decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the decision will affect the Spanish VTCs. It will be then when Europe determines the legality of one of the key aspects to determine the regulation of vehicle licenses with drivers.
To better understand what will be decided and why the CJEU’s decision is key, it is best to look back and check chronologically what has been happening in recent years.
2009. To better understand where we are, it is necessary to open the door of our particular time machine and travel to 2009. Spain began the year facing a strike by air traffic controllers, FC Barcelona lifted its third European Cup and Rihanna or Beyonce fought with the Butterfly Effect and Carlos Baute for number 1 of the top 40.
Also that year it was decided to open their hand with the VTC licenses. With the Omnibus Lawthe Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero approves eliminating the 1:30 ratio that limited the delivery of these licenses. Taxi drivers’ protests they do not back down the decision and thousands of licenses are delivered. So many that the ratio remains a bare 1:6. In 2015, 20,000 licenses had already been issued.
2015. Years after the change, the government of Mariano Rajoy backed down the previous reform and the 1:30 ratio was imposed again. the supreme courtHowever, it confirms that the licenses issued before 2015 are legal and imposes on the State that, if it wants to reduce their number, it will have to expropriate them.
Along the way, new applications are denied and the number closed in 2015 cannot be increased again. In 2018, the Government of Pedro Sánchez acts without acting. In other words, it transfers the problem to the Autonomous Communities and Town Halls, which will have to decide on the regulation that must operate in each one of them. It is known as the Ábalos Decree.
Four years. Giving the decision to the Town Halls and the Autonomous Communities had their own deadlines. For four years, the VTCs could continue to operate in Spain as they were doing in 2018. However, after this deadline (2022), the institutions had to face the problem and publish their own regulations.
More requirements. About to ring the bell, the two great Spanish cities spoke out. In Madrid, it has been decided to open the taxi business and not put too many obstacles that complicate the situation for the VTCs. The taxi drivers see extended working days and the VTCs remain at 9,000 enabled before the final decision of the Community of Madrid.
In Catalonia, however, it has been much more belligerent. The obligation has been imposed that VTC services have cars that measure at least 4.90 meters, licenses will only be issued to cars that also have an ECO or Zero emissions label and the obligation to pre-contract the service with 15 minutes in advance.
Let Europe decide. Faced with the rejection of licenses, the company Prestige and Limousine, SL The legal battle has been escalating in recent months to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). The usual procedure is that, from here, it will go to the Supreme Court, if the fight continues, but given the different regulatory changes during the last year, the TSJC has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union.
This query It is a prejudicial question whose sentence will be read on June 8. The decision can have a decisive influence on the resolution of the TSJC and, for this, it has consulted Europe to decide whether the requirements imposed by the Barcelona City Council and the Ábalos Decree comply with European law.
What do we know? For now, we know that the opinion of Advocate General Maciej Szpunarpresent in the European judicial process, is to break both the obligation to comply with the 1:30 ratio and the “double authorization” that Barcelona City Council requires when it imposes more additional requirements for the exploitation of VTC licences.
On both issues, Szpunar believes that it is about “minimizing the competition of VTC services with respect to taxis” and, even, “it seems questionable to him that the cab can be considered as a service of general economic interest and it is doubtful that the operators of said service fulfill a public service obligation”, according to the CJEU through its press office.
How does the CJEU work? At the end of the press release, two things are made clear. The first is that “the conclusions of the Advocate General are not binding on the Court of Justice”, which will determine his position in a resolution (which will be made public on June 8).
The second is that “reference for a preliminary ruling allows the courts of the Member States, in the context of a dispute they are hearing, to question the Court of Justice about the interpretation of Union law or about the validity of an act of the Union. The Court of Justice does not resolve the national dispute, and it is the national court that must resolve the dispute in accordance with the decision of the Court of Justice. Said decision is equally binding on other national courts dealing with a similar problem.”
What can happen? Once the final decision of the CJEU has been heard, as explained in the press release distributed to the media, it will be the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia that will end up deciding whether or not the requirements imposed by the State and by the Catalan administrations are legal and if they comply with European regulations.
If the CJEU were to be contrary to the Spanish regulations and the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia were to accommodate this decision, all the current regulations would blow up again and a new regulation would have to be found so that the VTCs can exploit their licenses with full law and legal security in our country.
In Xataka | The Government wanted VTCs to be reserved 15 minutes in advance. Justice may think differently
Photo |
