The Supreme Court endorses agents posted in one autonomous community joining local police forces in another

Responds to the case of a member of the Navarre Foral Police who wanted to join the Urban Guard

MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Supreme Court (TS) has rejected an appeal presented by the Barcelona City Council, thus endorsing that police officers posted in other autonomous communities can join the local security forces of another, in response to the case of a member of the Foral Police from Navarra who was excluded from a selection process to join the Urban Guard of the Catalan capital.

In a judgment of January 23, a presentation by magistrate Luis María Díez-Picazo, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TS endorses the decisions adopted by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), which sided with the foral agent , based on a previous ruling where the TSJC itself already declared illegal article 42.1 of Decree 233/2002, regulating access, promotion and mobility of the local police forces of Catalonia.

The facts date back to 2017, when the Barcelona City Council issued a call to cover, through inter-administrative mobility, 49 urban police posts. The foral agent submitted an application to participate in the selection process, but he was not included in the list of admitted candidates published on April 11, because he did not meet the requirement of being a local police officer in municipalities in Catalonia, mosso d'esquadra or civil guard or police officer national stationed in the autonomous community.

Said requirement was included in the bases of the call, although the foral agent fought it without success through administrative channels, for which reason he finally went to court. The Contentious-Administrative Court Number 3 of Barcelona again dismissed his claims, so he appealed to the TSJC, which agreed with him and it was then when the City Council of the city appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court recalls that the TSJC has already "concluded that the aforementioned regional regulatory provision is illegal" in an "identical matter" to this one. "This declaration of illegality was based (...) on the fact that imposing more demanding requirements for the inter-administrative mobility of civil servants than for the initial entry into the public service is contrary to the principle of equality" if there are no "objective reasons" for it, something that "does not occur in this case", he indicates.

The municipal council alleged that the TSJC treated this case "as if it were about access to public service", despite the fact that "the issue is the provision of places", further arguing that "restricting inter-administrative mobility in the local police to officials from of the autonomous community itself is an objectively justified option".

The Third Chamber of the TS rejects the arguments of the Barcelona Government to agree with the TSJC, establishing that "inter-administrative mobility can, in principle, operate across the boundaries of different autonomous communities, unless a law establishes otherwise, which does not occur in the present case".

"Thus, the issue is circumscribed to the fact that the limitation to participate in the call for inter-administrative mobility for officials from municipalities in Catalonia was imposed only by an autonomous regulatory precept," he states.

And it stresses that said precept "has been declared illegal, because it is considered contrary to certain constitutional principles, by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TSJC, which is the court with the last word in the interpretation of specifically autonomous law, provided that it does not contravenes the provisions of the Constitution, the block of constitutionality or the Law of the European Union".

Consequently, the Supreme Court "does not consider that the reasons given by the appeals court (TSJC) to consider article 42.1 of Decree 233/2002 illegal are unreasonable, arbitrary or extravagant" and, therefore, declares that "this conclusion should stay".