Royal Decree-Law 6/2020, of March 10, adopting urgent measures in the economic field and for the protection of public health

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE
No. 62 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Sec. I. Page 24169
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
HEAD OF STATE
3434 Royal Decree-Law 6/2020, of March 10, adopting certain urgent measures in the economic field and for the protection of public health.
I
This royal decree-law adopts a set of urgent measures directed at two specific areas, the economy and public health, which currently demand an immediate response.
In particular, it modifies Law 1/2013, of May 14, on measures to strengthen protection for mortgage debtors, debt restructuring, and social housing; Law 9/2012, of November 14, on the restructuring and resolution of credit institutions; and Royal Decree 84/2015, of February 13, which develops Law 10/2014, of June 26, on the regulation, supervision, and solvency of credit institutions.
Law 1/2013, of May 14, was approved to address the exceptional circumstances arising from the economic and financial crisis, which caused numerous people who had taken out a mortgage loan to acquire their primary residence to find themselves in difficulty meeting their obligations. One of the measures provided for by this law was the suspension of evictions affecting people in a situation of special vulnerability.
Despite nearly seven years having passed since the approval of Law 1/2013, of May 14, and the first suspension of evictions on primary residences of especially vulnerable groups, many debtors and their families continue to find themselves in a situation of special vulnerability.
Therefore, it is of extraordinary necessity from an economic, social, and conjunctural point of view to extend the suspension period of evictions by four more years, until May 2024, and to adjust the concept of vulnerable group so that it protects debtors who, despite being in a situation of special vulnerability, were not beneficiaries of the suspension until now.
In this way, any judicial process of mortgage execution or extrajudicial sale by which the primary residence of persons belonging to certain groups is awarded is affected by this measure. Thus, Law 1/2013, of May 14, prevents the eviction that would culminate in the displacement of vulnerable persons from proceeding, without altering the mortgage execution procedure.
The suspension of evictions benefits persons who find themselves in a situation of special vulnerability and who, for that reason, require special protection, as defined in Article 1 of Law 1/2013, of May 14. These persons are, under the current law, those belonging to large families, single-parent families with dependent children or those in which a minor is included, families in which any of its members has a recognized disability degree equal to or greater than 33 percent, a situation of dependency or illness that credibly and permanently incapacitates them from carrying out a work activity, families in which the mortgage debtor is in a situation of unemployment, families in which one or more persons united with the holder of the mortgage or their spouse by a bond of kinship up to the third degree of consanguinity or affinity reside, and who are in a personal situation of disability, dependency, or serious illness that credibly and temporarily or permanently incapacitates them from carrying out a work activity, and families in which there is a victim of gender-based violence. The debtor over 60 years of age also benefits from this measure. cve: BOE-A-2020-3434 Verifiable at https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE
No. 62 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Sec. I. Page 24170 Furthermore, this royal decree-law expands the group of possible beneficiaries, on the one hand, by establishing among the situations of special vulnerability single-parent families even if they have only one dependent child, and on the other hand, by increasing the maximum income limit of the family unit that serves as a reference to determine vulnerability in terms of the Public Indicator of Multiple-Effect Income based on the number of children and whether it is a single-parent family. The rule also extends its application so that the suspension takes effect regardless of who the award recipient of the housing is, whether a natural or legal person, and not only when it had been awarded to the creditor, or to any person acting on their behalf, as was the case until now. II Law 9/2012, of November 14, is also modified regarding the legal regime of the Asset Management Company of Assets from Bank Restructuring, S.A. (SAREB). This company was established in 2012 with the approval of Royal Decree-Law 24/2012, of August 31, on the restructuring and resolution of credit institutions, subsequently validated and replaced by Law 9/2012, of November 14, which has been developed by Royal Decree 1559/2012, of November 15, establishing the legal regime of asset management companies. SAREB is constituted as a joint-stock company that presents certain particularities derived from its singular corporate purpose, which is none other than the liquidation under the best possible conditions of the asset portfolio transferred to it, and the public interest derived from its activity. Both purposes lead to SAREB, although it is generally governed by the regulations of capital commercial companies, necessarily presenting a special legal regime in certain aspects that are essential to fulfill its corporate purpose. So far, SAREB is fulfilling its mandate. Additionally, as part of its corporate social responsibility, SAREB has a social housing promotion program, with a stock of 4,000 housing units enabled for social purposes, which intends to be expanded and complemented in the short term, which can be done as long as the company can continue to function and carry out its activity. For the purposes of continuing to achieve its objectives and so that SAREB continues to carry out its fundamental liquidation work normally, it is necessary to urgently complement the legal regime provided for this company by modifying the seventh additional provision of Law 9/2012, of November 14, for the purposes of not applying what is provided in Article 363.1.e) of the consolidated text of the Capital Companies Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010, of July 2. Article 363.1.e) regulates dissolution due to a reduction of net assets to an amount less than half of the share capital. The need for the non-application of this cause of resolution to SAREB is demanded by the legal mandate to divest within a certain period, and
maximizing the recovery of value of all assets that have been transferred to it and form part of its net assets. This particularity makes it essential to adapt to its special legal regime the causes of dissolution provided for generally for capital commercial companies that, in contrast to the purpose of SAREB, carry out their activity indefinitely over time, thus alien to the liquidating character of its assets that presents the ultimate purpose of SAREB. III This Royal Decree-Law also modifies Royal Decree 84/2015, of February 13. The fourth additional provision of said royal decree is modified to expand the type of already constituted financial entities that can request their transformation into banks. With the currently in force wording, the transformation into a bank is allowed for two types of entities: credit cooperatives and credit financial establishments. However, it is fundamental to expand the categories of financial entities that can request the transformation. First, it is necessary due to the uncertainty derived from the negotiation and the possible lack of agreement regulating relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom after the transitional period ending on December 31, 2020. This eventuality would mean that financial entities would have to modify their business model and initiate the authorization process to expand their financial businesses in Spain. Among these needs, the possibility of transforming into a bank stands out. In the evolution of the financial sector in recent years, a clear trend has been observed in various countries: when payment entities, electronic money institutions, or investment service companies reach a certain size, they choose to grow by transforming into banks, which allows them access to central bank financing or public deposits, in exchange for more demanding requirements. In a context where entities are considering their relocation decisions, precisely due to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, it is urgent and necessary to eliminate the competitive disadvantage that entities are forced to acquire banking subsidiaries or restructure instead of undergoing a transformation procedure as occurs in the rest of the European Union. Note also that although it will not be until December when the transitional period of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union ends, insofar as localization decisions are executed over several months, it is necessary to undertake this reform immediately so that entities have sufficient time to carry out their transformation. Secondly, because this impossibility of transformation into a bank is a domestic peculiarity that does not exist in the rest of the member states of the European Union and significantly burdens the competitiveness of the Spanish financial system. Indeed, in a context of increasing geographical mobility of these companies, many of which are currently considering relocating their registered office to other European
Union member states, the existence of a certain and stable regulatory framework becomes an absolutely essential condition that determines their investment decisions. Thirdly, the entry into force of a new prudential regime for investment service companies following the approval of Directive (EU) 2019/2034 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 27, 2019, and Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 27, 2019, obliges the application of the prudential regime of credit institutions or the request for authorization as a credit institution when certain thresholds are exceeded. It must be taken into account that the expansion of the type of entities that can transform into banks will continue to have the necessary guarantees to ensure that the transformation does not harm in any way the rights and interests of investors and does not put at risk the stability of the Spanish financial system. First, because this possibility is extended to other types of financial entities that, by their legal regime, are also in principle in a position to assume the demanding legal regime of banks. And secondly, because, logically, supervisory authorities will continue to authorize the transformation only if all other legal and regulatory requirements applicable in each specific case are met. IV Since the World Health Organization declared last month that the situation regarding COVID-19 constituted a public health emergency of international concern, and as the first cases have begun to appear in our country, it is necessary to adopt a series of measures that cannot be delayed to guarantee the social protection of workers who take leave due to isolation and illness, as well as to guarantee the supply of necessary material in our national health system. cve: BOE-A-2020-3434 Verifiable at https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE
No. 62 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Sec. I. Page 24172 In particular, on the one hand, with the aim of avoiding the spread of the disease and maintaining the social protection of self-employed and employed workers, it is included that periods of isolation or contagion of workers as a consequence of the COVID-19 virus will have the status of a situation assimilated to a work accident for the purposes of the economic benefit for temporary incapacity of the Social Security system.
On the other hand, as a measure to anticipate possible shortages, Organic Law 3/1986, of April 14, on Special Measures in Matters of Public Health, provides in its fourth article.a) that when a medicine or medical device is affected by exceptional supply difficulties and to guarantee its best distribution, the State Health Administration may temporarily establish centralized supply by the Administration.
However, the exceptional supply difficulties existing in our national health system imply that the authorization conferred on the State to carry out the centralized supply of medicines and medical devices is insufficient to guarantee the adequate supply of the necessary material for the prevention of COVID-19 in our national health system, making it necessary to extend this authorization to other products necessary for health protection that do not have the nature of a medical device, in accordance with what is provided in Royal Decree 1591/2009, of October 16, regulating medical devices. Therefore, it is necessary to modify said Organic Law.
V
This royal decree-law consists of an explanatory part and an operative part, and is structured in two chapters comprising five articles and two final provisions.
The first chapter comprises Articles One, Two, and Three. Article One modifies the seventh additional provision of Law 9/2012, of November 14, for the purposes of not applying to SAREB what is provided in Article 363.1.e) of the consolidated text of the Capital Companies Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010, of July 2.
Article Two modifies Law 1/2013, of May 14, extending the period and the beneficiary group of the suspension of evictions. In this sense, the validity of the suspension of evictions is prolonged for four more years for persons who find themselves in situations of special vulnerability when in a judicial or extrajudicial process of mortgage execution the housing had been awarded to any person, not only to the creditor or a third party acting on their behalf, as occurred in the modified text. At the same time, single-parent families with one dependent child are included among the vulnerable groups. Finally, the income limit to benefit from the measure is increased, by increasing for each dependent child within the family unit by 0.15 times the IPREM for single-parent families or by 0.10 times the IPREM for other families.
Article Three modifies Royal Decree 84/2015, of February 13, expanding the type of already constituted financial entities that can request their transformation into banks.
On the other hand, the second chapter is constituted by Article Four and Article Five. Article Four modifies Organic Law 3/1986, of April 14, on Special Measures in Matters of Public Health to establish the centralized supply by the State of medical devices other than medicines. Finally, Article Five contemplates, in order to protect public health, as a situation assimilated to a work accident exclusively for the economic benefit of temporary incapacity of the Social Security system, the periods of isolation or contagion of workers as a consequence of the COVID-19 virus.
The first final provision maintains the rank of the modifications made in Royal Decree 84/2015, of February 13, making it possible that in the future they may be modified by royal decree. The second final provision, on the other hand, collects the entry into force. cve: BOE-A-2020-3434 Verifiable at https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE
No. 62 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Sec. I. Page 24173 VI The adoption of economic measures by royal decree-law has been endorsed by the Constitutional Court always that there is an explicit and reasoned motivation of the necessity –understood as such that the economic conjuncture requires a rapid response– and urgency –assuming as such that the delay in time in the adoption of the measure in question through the ordinary normative channel could generate some prejudice–.
The royal decree-law constitutes a constitutionally lawful instrument, always that the purpose justifying urgent legislation is, as repeatedly required by our Constitutional Court (judgments 6/1983, of February 4, F. 5; 11/2002, of January 17, F. 4, 137/2003, of July 3, F. 3 and 189/2005, of July 7, F. 3), to address a concrete situation, within governmental objectives, that for reasons difficult to foresee requires immediate normative action in a shorter period than that required by the normal route or by the urgency procedure for the parliamentary processing of laws, especially when the determination of said procedure does not depend on the Government.
As has been exposed, circumstances of extraordinary and urgent necessity concur in this case that justify the approval of this royal decree-law demanded by Article 86.1 of the Spanish Constitution. At the present moment, it continues to be necessary to face the situation of those families that continue to suffer economic adversity, which justifies the modifications of Law 1/2013, of May 14. The period provided will end on May 15, 2020, so resorting to the royal decree-law as a normative vehicle to extend this period by another four years is fully justified. Likewise, the lack of adjustment of the vulnerability threshold since the measure was approved in 2012 may be causing the unjustified eviction of persons who actually would be part of this group. These circumstances also concur in relation to the introduction of the modification of the seventh additional provision of Law 9/2012, of November 14. Having passed a little more than half of the period for which SAREB was created (Royal Decree 1559/2012, of November 15, establishes its duration at 15 years, until November 28, 2027) and taking into account the degree of divestment reached at the current moment, and in view of the risks derived from a market such as real estate with a certain degree of volatility, it is necessary to avoid that SAREB could eventually find itself in a legal cause of dissolution, which would prevent the normal development of its activity and, ultimately, reaching in its entirety the objectives for which the company was created. And, in particular, the social housing promotion program that it intends to develop in the short term could be frustrated, whose development and implementation has a marked social interest in the current real estate market situation. The causes of extraordinary and urgent necessity also concur in the new regime established by Article Three, which allows an ordered transformation and expansion of the activities of certain financial entities and branches in Spain in the face of the risk of lack of agreement on future relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom. This provision equalizes the regime of transformation into banks of credit cooperatives, credit financial establishments, securities companies, payment entities, and electronic money entities. The current economic conjuncture with strong competition to attract investments and companies in the context of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union obliges the adoption of measures with immediate effect. The processing of this provision through the ordinary legislative route would put the Spanish financial system at a disadvantage in a context with risks and opportunities compared to our neighboring countries. The United Kingdom is, moreover, the first destination of our foreign direct investment, very concentrated in the financial sector, so its withdrawal could affect our financial system notably. With respect to Articles Four and Five of this royal decree-law, in
the current scenario of containment and prevention of COVID-19, it is urgent and necessary to tackle the epidemic and avoid its spread to protect public health and the current indefiniteness of leaves for isolation or contagion for social security benefits, as cve: BOE-A-2020-3434 Verifiable at https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE
No. 62 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Sec. I. Page 24174 it represents a detriment to citizens and a risk to public health. Likewise, it has been detected that the shortage of products necessary for health protection constitutes a risk to public health; it should be noted that there are health reasons that justify the urgent and extraordinary necessity provided for in Article 86.1 of our Constitution, which underpin the planned modification of Article Four of Organic Law 3/1986, of April 14.
Likewise, the extraordinary and urgent necessity to approve this royal decree-law is inscribed in the political or opportunistic judgment that corresponds to the Government (STC 61/2018, of June 7, FJ 4; 142/2014, of September 11, FJ 3) and this decision, undoubtedly, represents an ordering of political priorities of action (STC of January 30, 2019, Constitutional Appeal No. 2208-2019), centered on the fulfillment of legal certainty, the protection of especially vulnerable groups in our society, and public health. The opportunistic reasons just exposed demonstrate that, in no case, the present royal decree-law constitutes a case of abusive or arbitrary use of this constitutional instrument (STC 61/2018, of June 7, FJ 4; 100/2012, of May 8, FJ 8; 237/2012, of December 13, FJ 4; 39/2013, of February 14, FJ 5). On the contrary, all the reasons exposed widely and reasonably justify the adoption of the present norm (STC 29/1982, of May 31, FJ 3; 111/1983, of December 2, FJ 5; 182/1997, of October 20, FJ 3). It should also be noted that this royal decree-law does not affect the