Spain has experienced various administrative reform processes that have led to regulatory projects of various scope. It is worth mentioning, among others, the Modernization Plan of the State Administration in the 1990s, which gave rise to the implementation of quality models of public services and regulatory reforms in terms of procedure and administrative structure; White Paper for the Improvement of Public Services 2000; the cycle of reforms embodied in the approval of the Law on State Agencies for the Improvement of Public Services and the constitution of the State Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies and the Quality of Services (AEVAL) in 2006, the Basic Statute of the Public Employee of 2007 and the Law on Electronic Access of Citizens to Public Services. The last of these reforms arose from the Report of the Commission for the Reform of the AA PP (CORA), created in October 2012, and normatively reflected in Laws 39/2015, of 1 October, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations and 40/2015, of 1 October, on the Public Sector Legal Regime.

We are now embarking on a new cycle of transformation aimed at having an administration prepared for the future, which can respond quickly and quickly to what society demands of it, in a rapidly changing environment and with the focus on citizenship.

This new transformation cycle takes as its starting point component 11 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, related to the modernization of the administration, which contains a set of measures to combat temporality in public employment, transform the human resources model based on competency-based management, digitize public administrations, as well as improve the design and evaluation of public policies.

For its part, the Communication from the European Commission on Improving the European Administrative Area [COM(2023) 667 final of 25 October], ComPAct, indicates the need for the Member States to concentrate all their efforts on improving the administrative organisation, in its different dimensions.

First, there is the strategic dimension, which refers to the way in which public policies are formulated, which must be informed by the evidence. This is a very solid line of work that the European Commission has undertaken with the help of the Joint Research Centre of the Union, with the aim of ensuring that science and administration have a constant interrelationship to provide evidence in the time when data are going to be the raw material that will lead to profound transformations of organizations.

In their operational dimension, public administrations must respond to the concerns of European citizens when providing fully accessible digital services and citizen care services that take into account the difficulties associated with the digital divide.

And a third dimension, particularly important, is the consolidation of meritocratic public employment models that promote lifelong learning, in order to be able to undertake the double digital and ecological transition.

These are the foundations on which the European administrative space is built, and the Commission encourages states to undertake structural reforms, which has been done, in part, with the milestones and reforms committed in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

This transforming impulse of the European Commission is articulated in the Spanish Public Administration on three levels:

Firstly, the organizational level, which for the first time places the competences in public service under a newly created ministry, which brings together the digital and public service transformation.

Secondly, the strategic plane, through Consensus for an Open Administration, road map for the transformation of the State Administration built in an innovative and participatory way.

Structured in four axes and eighteen projects, Consensus for an Open Administration It has undergone an extensive public consultation process, having received a very significant number of contributions. The document is structured around four axes, aligned with those of the ComPAct communication, forming an administration open to investment in public sector capacities, to public policies informed by evidence and participation, to citizenship and to transparency, public participation and accountability.

And thirdly, the normative plane. Thus, to meet the milestones of the Recovery Plan, a comprehensive Civil Service Law project was developed, which aims to develop the full modernizing potential of the Basic Civil Service Statute. This regulatory reform must be complemented by other laws provided for in the Annual Regulatory Plan, such as the Law for the Transformation of the Administration that is consulted here.

Taking as reference the diagnosis contained in the framework document Consensus for an Open Administration The following priority areas for action have been identified:

2.1. Guarantee and make effective the right of citizens to interact with Public Administrations.

Spain starts from a good position in the provision of digital public services thanks to the development of successive digitization plans, which have allowed to improve the accessibility of public services. This growing digital interaction, which generates important benefits, also poses a challenge associated with the digital divide and the need for inclusive public services, so it is necessary to promote specific measures that address the gaps in access to public services, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the right to interact with public administrations.

In the context of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been detected a growing difficulty of access for citizens to face-to-face, close and quality care, both for obtaining information and for carrying out procedures.

The digital divide not only affects certain specific groups (such as older people or people with disabilities), but can also be extended to the general population for other cultural, educational, socio-economic or even geographical reasons. To this is added the difficulty of identifying the responsible administration in a multi-level government structure, the unequal distribution of resources in the territory and a high dispersal of regulations. The prior appointment, which is a good solution to provide a quality service to citizens, becomes an obstacle when it becomes mandatory.

It is necessary to remove this obstacle and adopt a regulatory framework aimed at eliminating barriers such as this and in which it is translated into a model of interconnection of care offices.

2.2. Create a functional structure that complements the organic structure.

The complexity of the public policy issues shared by the Member States of the European Union is generating dynamic organic administrative structures, insofar as departmental restructuring allows the needs identified in the configuration of new public policies to be met in a flexible manner.

In order to promote a more agile functioning of the new structures and of the organization as a whole, it is considered appropriate to complete this organizational structure with a functional structure that, in a similar way to the functional classification of public spending provided for in the General Budget Law, allows linking the resources and processes of the organization to the provision of results in the form of public goods and services.

2.3. Strengthen strategic and operational planning and evaluation.

The objective is to strengthen the fundamental elements of management by objectives, based on greater planning, control and evaluation capacity of ministries, greater autonomy in the management of the human, economic and material resources of management centres, management of the relationship between principal and agent through management contracts and encouragement of effectiveness and efficiency in achieving results with a system of incentives and assumption of responsibilities.

2.4. Improve efficiency through the identification of shared services and media.

The use of catalogues of common services, beyond the ICT field and centralized contracting, has been revealed as a possibility to optimize the allocation of the organization’s resources.

It is advisable to create the necessary regulatory incentives that allow to introduce efficiency gains in the whole of the departmental and instrumental structure and provide the mechanisms that ensure a rapid deployment of these solutions.

2.5. To turn the human resources of the State Administration into a lever for transformation.

Human resources are one of the indispensable pillars for the improvement of administrative capacity. This administrative capacity is substantially strengthened through the evolution towards a selection model that, guaranteeing the characteristic rigor of selection in the state public service, ensures the constitutional principles of equality, merit and capacity, removing the obstacles to equality of opportunities being real and effective.

2.6. Accompany the public direction of support tools for the fulfillment of the government program.

Public management, collected for the first time in the Basic Statute of the Public Employee, as personnel whose professional management is subject to criteria of effectiveness and efficiency, responsibility and control of results according to the objectives. Its regulation was completed through Royal Decree-Law 6/2023, of 19 December, approving urgent measures among others in the public service, which develops the figure of public managers as an element to guarantee the planning, evaluation and control of public policies.

Public management makes it possible to link the strategic dimension of the definition of public policies, which corresponds to the Government, and the operational dimension of administrative capacities, located in the administrative organization under the direction of the Government.

It is timely to strengthen the capacities of public management through tools and incentives that allow better compliance with the government program.

2.7. Create reserves of operational capacity to improve resilience.

Public administrations must be prepared to respond to crisis situations and unexpected needs. Therefore, it is advisable to complement traditional organizational formulas with the construction of reserves of operational capacity of the organization.

These reservations are articulated with formulas such as the flexible units included in the fourth additional provision of the draft Public Service Law of the State Administration.

2.8. Structure and use data from the public sector.

The construction of a legal framework that allows the use of the full potential of data is a key enabling factor for the full use of the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public administrations, while at the same time containing its risks and ordering processes from an instrumental logic.

The correct use and exploitation of data is fundamental to evidence-based decision-making. The General Administration of the State has been signified by being at the forefront of the application of technology in the service of citizens. And now it is facing the new challenge presented by the sharing and exploitation of data sets, which allows it to exploit the enormous asset represented by data held in a rational, secure way and with full legal guarantees for data owners, users and stakeholders, and which places our public sector at the European forefront of the exploitation of new technologies.

2.9. Promote regulatory innovation in the state public administration.

Innovation must be a permanent and indispensable process for any organization, public or private, that seeks to ensure its social legitimacy.

In recent times, overcoming traditional barriers to innovation in organizations involves the adoption of regulatory measures relating to the creation of controlled test spaces and laboratories and tests. It is about the normative provision to create a safe and controlled environment where tests and experiments of new technologies, services or business models can be carried out without affecting the users or the market in general, which allows an appropriate and adaptable regulation.

In this way, the spaces offer a regulated context conducive to experimentation and application to real situations of innovative technologies, products, services or approaches during a defined period and sector and under adequate supervision by a responsible body.

2.10. Apply regulatory innovation to the incorporation of European Union law.

The Communication from the European Commission on the Improvement of the European Administrative Area (ComPAct) has highlighted the fundamental role that the administrations of the Member States of the Union assume in the implementation of its acquis as a whole.

In this area, Spain could benefit from a regulatory approach that ensures a better management of the process of transposition of Union law into the internal order, following on this point the recommendations contained in the report that was submitted to the Council of Ministers in February 2020, while incorporating the provisions of the Agreement for the improvement of the negotiation process and incorporation of European Union law into the internal legal order of 23 February 2021. The purpose of this Agreement is to improve the participation of the Kingdom of Spain in the processes of normative elaboration in the European Union and to improve its application and transposition in which the elaboration of an Impact Study on the Legislative Proposals of the European Commission (EIPLE) is foreseen.

The quality of administration is essential for improving competitiveness in the context of the dual digital and green transition. The Communication from the European Commission on Improving the European Administrative Area (ComPAct) states that "in a rapidly changing world, faced with complex economic, social, technological and environmental changes, as well as multiple transitions, it is essential to have high-quality public administrations for good governance and for the effectiveness of EU and Member State action. […] The implementation of this policy agenda depends on high-quality, innovative and resilient public administrations at all levels of the Member States..»

According to various international indicators, the Spanish administration has a good starting point to face this transformation, as it has highly qualified professionals and technological capabilities that allow it to make the leap to include itself in the group of States of the European Union of high administrative capacities.

It is necessary to rely on the starting strengths of the Spanish administration in terms of digitization and structuring of public data in order to promote a transformation of the organization that allows us to address the weaknesses detected in terms of planning, structuring and quality of the organization, greater use of resources and data, attention to citizenship, regulatory innovation and insertion of Union law in the internal order.

The public service of attention to citizenship is essential and aims to facilitate the exercise of rights and the fulfillment of duties in relations with public administrations. This service is based on principles of free choice of care channel, universal accessibility, equality, non-discrimination, quality, effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and protection of personal data.

Public administrations must have the necessary resources to ensure that people can relate to them by the means they choose, paying special attention to the needs of people with disabilities or in situations of vulnerability. In addition, they must facilitate access to public services through various channels, such as face-to-face offices, internet portals, telephone, email and others, guaranteeing the right of citizens to choose the channel of relationship.

Secondly, the strengthening of administrative capacities requires supplementing the classic organizational structure of the General Administration of the State with the structuring by functions and processes; the requirement to act according to planning and direction by objectives; the promotion of the use of common services and the construction of reserves of operational capacity in order to make the organization more resilient and capable of responding and adapting to external impacts.

Thirdly, with regard to the human capital of the State Administration, it is necessary to transform the selection model so that, from the characteristic rigour of selection in the current selective processes, progress is made in the full exercise of the constitutional principles of access to public employment.

Likewise, it is opportune to continue developing the legal regime for managers, to strengthen professional public management and provide it with tools of support and accompaniment that improve its role as a decisive factor in administrative transformation and in the quality of the services provided.

Fourthly, the strengthening of administrative capacities must make it possible to make fully effective the rights of citizens to interact with the Administration, which is what legitimises the very raison d'être of public administrations. It is proposed to remove obstacles, such as the requirement of prior appointment and difficulties of access by electronic means, which have proved dysfunctional in order to guarantee quality care.

Fifthly, it is necessary to order and regulate the mechanisms for the provision of data and the reuse of information from the General State Administration and the State institutional public sector. This is to ensure that the full use of the capabilities offered by artificial intelligence is solidly anchored in a model that guarantees legal certainty, the proper structuring and sharing of data and its governance.

Sixthly, it is proposed to introduce in the field of public administration elements that favor innovation, such as controlled test spaces, in order to enable controlled and delimited experimentation that allows to provide innovations based on technology and regulation.

Finally, it is necessary to introduce regulatory innovation mechanisms to ensure a more effective and efficient incorporation of the Union’s legislation into our internal law.

Las Conclusions of the working groups of the Public Innovation Laboratory and HazLab of the framework document of Consensus for an Open Administration propose to address in an overall approach the different modifications that are considered relevant to favor a transformation of the Administration in the management of its organizational resources, data, the best provision of services of attention to citizenship and measures of innovation and regulatory improvement.

This regulation must contain the legal rules and obligations necessary to prepare the State Administration in the context of technological disruption derived from AI. In parallel, the strategy Consensus for an Open Administration, Anticipates the impacts of the law through the functional structuring of information systems and the progressive deployment of high-impact technology projects.

1.- Suitability and convenience of a reform

1. In general, are you satisfied with the functioning of the public services you use? Yes/No

2. Expand, where appropriate, the answer.

3. Which of the following options best describes the State Administration? Point to a maximum of 3 answers.

· It is effective

· Treat all people equally

· It is slow and bureaucratic

· It is accessible

· It is poorly digitized

· Give enough information

· Offers quality services

· It is not close to citizenship

2.- Attention to citizenship

1. Could you cite some state public service in which you were served in a particularly positive way?

2. Could you cite any state public service in which you were treated in a particularly negative way?

3. What do you think should be changed in the public services of attention to citizenship?

· Clear and understandable language

· Assistance by public employees

· Choice of the channel for access to public services

· Others

4. Expand, where appropriate, the answer.

5. When you’ve needed to make an appointment, have you been able to get one easily? Yes/No

6. Which channel did you use?

· I was given an appointment at the Citizenship Care Office

· I used the phone 060

· I used a mobile pre-appointment app

· I used a website to make an appointment

· I asked a friend or family member for help

· I asked for an organization’s appointment in exchange for financial compensation.

7. In relation to the location and hours of care of the public office, were they adequate for you? Yes/No

8. Do you think it is necessary to have more hours of attention? Yes/No

9. Do you think it is appropriate to be able to be attended in any office, even if it is from another administration? Yes/No

10. If you can choose, which channel of attention do you find most interesting?

· Attention in office

· Telephone attention

· Attention by video call

· Carry out the procedures directly using the Internet through the portals and electronic offices

· Carry out the procedures directly with mobile applications.

11. What obstacles do you encounter in accessing public services?

· The language is hard to understand

· I can't find the information I need, it's very difficult to get to the right link

· The information they give me, both in the offices and in the publications or in the pages, are not intuitive

· I find it very difficult to use the digital signature

12. What would you like to find in a citizenship care office?

· Computers to be able to do the procedures directly in the office

· Desks of attention

· Counters of attention

· waiting area with chairs while waiting for my turn

· Preferential care for elderly people or people with disabilities

· Self-service machines (kiosks) in which to carry out simple procedures and be able to count on the help of someone in the office

13. Select the three aspects you value most in the care you receive from the Public Administration:

· The speed of attention

· The guidance they offer me to resolve my doubts or carry out my procedures on a single visit

· The friendly treatment of public employees

· The possibility to choose the channel of attention (in the office, by phone, by video call)

· That the people who care for me show that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to resolve my consultation or my procedure

· The short time I have to wait to be treated

· Others

14. Submit your proposals if you have marked “Other” in the previous question:

3.- Organization of the State Administration

1. Of the following subjects, which do you think should be addressed in a process of transformation? Prioritize your answers.

· The organization of the State Administration

· The system of selection of public employed personnel

· The professional public management

· The use of information and data held by the Administration for evidence-based decision-making

· The attention to citizenship

· The incorporation of innovative technologies

· The incorporation of European Union law into the national legal order

2. Point out other issues that you think should be addressed in a transformation process.

3. Do you think it is convenient to have common services for several ministries? Yes/No

4. Expand, where appropriate, the answer.

4.- Human resources

1. Do you consider that the staff selection system of the State Administration corresponds to the profile of the public employee that is needed in the current context? Yes/No

2. Expand, where appropriate, the answer.

3. Do you consider that the current selection system guarantees the real and effective equality of all applicants? Yes/No

4. How could the rigour of selective testing be combined with the guarantee of equal opportunities?

5. How could the selective processes be streamlined?

6. How could public leadership in the State Administration be strengthened?

7. What support and accompaniment tools could be designed for the improvement of public management (training, mentoring, monitoring of objectives, planning...)?

5.- Information, data and innovation in the State Administration

1. Do you think that the exploitation and processing of the data available to the Administration can help better informed decision-making and why?

2. In relation to the data and documents requested by the State Administration:

· You prefer the administration to use the data that you have already provided previously

· You prefer to provide the documents in each procedure

· You prefer to indicate to the administration in each procedure whether you provide the documents or the administration uses the data that you have already provided previously

3. How could innovation be fostered in the state public administration?

4. How can emerging technologies be systematically incorporated into the Administration?

5. Would you consider it appropriate to separate the European Union's legislative agenda from the national legislative agenda? Yes/No

6. Expand, where appropriate, the answer.

7. Finally, what other issues do you think should be part of a transformation?