In one of his most well-known works, titled Campo Cerrado, which is part of the series El Laberinto Mágico, Max Aub has one of his characters say that revolutions are decided by leaders, carried out by the people, executed by the military, and consolidated by bureaucracies.
Indeed, it is these bureaucracies that ultimately display the firmest hand of all these revolutionary actors, symbolized by the desk or counter that separates officials from citizens, often subjecting the latter to the discretionary will of the former. Examples of this subjugation, further reinforced by a relentless legislative avalanche that leads to interpretations and/or applications of regulations that are often arbitrary, are experienced daily by entrepreneurs, professionals, and individuals, with no one willing, able, or knowing how to stop it or at least limit or redirect it, resulting in a regression of rights and freedoms.
Such a statement may seem exaggerated and require some qualifications, but perhaps not as many when considering the Spain Report 2018, prepared by the Business Council for Competitiveness and recently presented to the media, which repeatedly emphasizes the urgent need to reduce administrative burdens to improve efficiency and competitiveness. However, in my opinion, the problem lies not only in the administrative burdens themselves, which indeed are increasing every day, but also in how officials confront these burdens and how they transfer them to citizens. This is evident in experiences such as obtaining the Foreign Identity Number (NIE), necessary for participating as a partner or administrator in the formation of a company and for operating it thereafter. If one presents a power of attorney granted abroad, they may find that some departments accept it—such as Taxation—while others do not—such as Interior—without understanding the criteria used by each.
Another example is the legalization of foreign public documents or those destined for abroad, especially in cases where there is no single legalization, which consists of placing the so-called Hague Apostille on the document because the country in question is not part of the XII Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, which eliminated the requirement for legalization of foreign public documents. One then faces a chain of individual authentications involving different departments—Justice and Foreign Affairs—and consulates—the consulate or consular section of the country concerned—where the requirements for documents to be presented are not always the same. They can vary from one department to another and even within the same department, depending on which official one encounters: if acting on behalf of a foreign company, Justice may not require a power of attorney, but Foreign Affairs might; and within Foreign Affairs, one official may not request it while another does, thereby affecting productivity and competitiveness. And what about legal certainty?