Spain

This report maps and analyses the core issues which together make up effective regulatory management for Spain, laying down a framework of what should be driving regulatory policy and reform in the future. Issues examined include: strategy and policies for improving regulatory management; institutional capacities for effective regulation and the broader policy making context; transparency and processes for effective public consultation and communication; processes for the development of new regulations, including impact assessment and for the management of the regulatory stock, including administrative burdens; compliance rates, enforcement policy and appeal processes; and the multilevel dimension: interface between different levels of government and interface between national processes and those of the EU. This book is part of a project examining better regulation, being carried out in partnership with the European Commission.

The radical transformation that Spanish rural areas have experienced in the past few decades suggest, as it has occurred in many OECD countries, a new approach to rural policy. Spain has recently undertaken a major reform of its rural policies, including the merger of the Ministry of Agriculture with the Ministry of the Environment and the recently approved Law on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas.  This new framework creates a multi-sectoral and place-based 'rural policy of state', making Spain better equipped to address the challenges and opportunities of rural areas. This report – undertaken at the same time as the reforms were being implemented – will interest both policy makers engaged in similar reform processes and others working on issues such the 'political economy' of reforms, rural tourism, renewable energies, rural clusters, development of peri-urban areas and public service delivery in remote rural areas.