Prior public consultation on the Preliminary Draft of the Open Administration Act
Date of publication: 01/09/2025
Deadline: until 22/09/2025
Article 133 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, in relation to article 26.2 of Law 50/1997, of 27 November, of the Government, with the aim of improving the participation of citizens in the procedure of elaboration of the rules, provides for the realization of a public consultation, through the web portal of the competent Administration, in which the opinion of the subjects and the most representative organizations potentially affected by the future rule will be sought about:
a) The problems that are intended to be solved with the new regulations.
(b) The necessity and timeliness of its approval.
(c) The objectives of the rule.
d) Possible alternative regulatory and non-regulatory solutions.
In compliance with the above and in accordance with the provisions of Order PRE/1590/2016, of October 3, which publishes the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of September 30, 2016, by which instructions are issued to enable public participation in the process of elaboration of regulations through the web portals of the ministerial departments, citizens, organizations and associations that wish to do so, may send their comments to the Ministry. 22 September 2025, via the following e-mail address: consultapublicasefp@digital.gob.es
In the submissions that are submitted, it will be necessary to record the identification data of the natural or legal person (name, surname, NIF, as well as the full name of the participating organization or association, if applicable).
The following will be indicated in the “subject” field of the email: Open Administration.
In this regard, it should be noted that only responses in which the sender is identified will be taken into consideration.
In general, the contributions received will be considered to be open to public dissemination. Natural persons who do not want the publication of their identity must expressly state it. Likewise, those parts of the information submitted that, in the opinion of the persons concerned, should be treated confidentially and, consequently, should not be freely disseminated, should be specifically indicated in the text of the contribution itself.
Spain aspires to lead by example in government and open administration. During the last decade, efforts have been directed at strengthening the openness of our administrations and promoting transparency, citizen participation, accountability and public integrity, with the aim of strengthening the confidence of citizens in their institutions and improving the quality of our democracy.
In this context, the incorporation of our country, since its foundation in 2011, into the Open Government Alliance, an international association of reformers that brings together national, regional and local governments with civil society organizations with the mission of promoting in all areas of public management, through action plans, the development of open government values, is a fundamental milestone. To date, our country has designed four action plans in collaboration with civil society represented in the Open Government Forum and is currently finalizing the elaboration of the V Plan 2025-2029.
In the last legislature began the work of amending Law 19/2013, of December 9, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Government. A working group composed of representatives of the three administrations and civil society was formed within the Open Government Forum. The group presented conclusions for the reform of the law that were subsequently submitted to a prior public consultation process. The results of the work and the development of the consultation process are available on the Transparency Portal through these links.
It is necessary to continue moving forward decisively. To this end, a coherent and ambitious normative approach is proposed that integrates in a single bill the different dimensions of open government.
This is the path set by the European Commission's report on the Rule of Law Mechanism, which calls for consolidating progress in our country in terms of integrity, transparency and participation in public affairs. The incorporation of the different dimensions of open government into a single normative text is thus in line with the OECD Open Government Recommendation of 14 December 2017, which defines this new culture as one that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth.
1. Reform of the Transparency Act.
During the years of validity of Law 19/2013, of 9 December, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, it has been necessary to solve some practical problems, clarify some concepts and bet on new approaches according to the demands of the citizens and public administrations.
In the last legislature the amendment of Law 19/2013, of December 9, was the subject of a prior public consultation developed on the conclusions of a working group constituted in the Open Government Forum that integrated in a joint way representatives of the three administrations and civil society.
2. Improving citizen participation in public affairs.
In order to properly match the expectations of citizens and the results of public action, it is necessary to incorporate their opinion early into the development of public policies.
It is appropriate to systematize the instruments and processes of participation, in order to ensure the full use of the potential of citizen contributions in public decision-making.
3. Preventive approach to the integrity of public activity through the setting of a due diligence standard.
The objective is to collect and systematize the principles of good governance and good administration applicable to senior staff, staff members of cabinets with functions of trust and special advice, and public employees, and to establish a standard of due diligence that allows a preventive approach to the strengthening of public integrity.
4. Strengthening the prevention of conflicts of interest.
The normative provisions are aimed at adapting the regime of conflicts of interest of senior officials, contingent personnel of special confidence or political advice, managerial personnel and public employees of the State. It involves a review of the current regulations in order to establish a new system for the prevention of conflicts of interest, based on the possibilities for improvement detected in their application and the demands of society.
5. Accountability of government action and administrative activity.
The objective is to regulate accountability obligations both in terms of commitments made at parliamentary headquarters and in strategic planning or operational instruments.
Moving towards a more open administration that promotes public confidence in public services through the promotion of transparency, integrity, accountability and participation is one of the primary obligations of public authorities.
The design, adoption and execution of public policies must take place within this framework and be oriented towards the general interest, in order to be constituted as a guarantee of democratic values, the fundamental basis of the social and democratic rule of law.
In this tour we must especially point out the Action Plan for Democracy approved by the Council of Ministers on 17 September 2024, aimed at strengthening the main elements of our rule of law, combating the risks suffered by democracies and providing more tools and power to Spanish society to evaluate the action of public authorities in line with the recommendations of the European Commission.
Likewise, the State Anti-Corruption Plan, approved by the Council of Ministers of 26 August 2025, aims to prevent and combat corruption by strengthening controls, increasing transparency and improving efficiency in public management. The elaboration of this Plan follows the recommendations of the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO), the OECD and the European Commission. It also incorporates valuable contributions from civil society, through joint work with the Open Government Forum, and experts from the OECD’s Division of Anti-Corruption and Integrity in Government.
Finally, on July 21, 2025, the Minister for Digital and Civil Service Transformation has presented the strategy Consensus for an Open Administration whose roadmap should make it possible, among other objectives, to provide more proactive public services and generate greater public confidence.
The objective is to provide coherence and ambition to the normative implementation of the different aspects that make up open government: transparency, integrity, public participation and accountability.
1. Strengthening transparency in its aspects of active advertising and exercising the right of access
The improvement of the regulatory framework applicable to the transparency of public activity is oriented to the consolidation of the advances derived from more than a decade of application of Law 19/2013, of 9 December, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance, the integration of the adaptations necessary to ensure compliance of the Council of Europe on Access to Public Documents ratified by Spain on 27 September 2023 (Instrument of ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Public Documents, done at Tromsø on 18 June 2009, BOE 23 October 2023), and the incorporation of the bases for reform agreed by the working group constituted within the Open Government Forum in compliance with the commitment reflected in the IV Open Government Plan.
2. Consolidating a culture of public integrity
In the area of public integrity, the principles of good governance and good administration aimed at regulating the conduct of senior staff, members of cabinets with special advisory functions, managers and public employees should be designed to strengthen the conflict of interest prevention regime and the preventive dimension of integrity, incorporating the recommendations made to that effect by various international bodies and especially those derived from the rounds of evaluations of the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe.
3. Promoting public participation
The regulation of citizen participation in public affairs and collaboration with civil society organizations at the state level is based on the configuration of the administration’s duty to promote it. At the same time, the spectrum of public decisions in which it will have to be promoted is broadened, without prejudice to the provisions of the Constitution, electoral legislation, Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, in relation to participation in the elaboration of normative provisions through prior consultation and audience processing and public information, as well as the mechanisms established by various sectoral laws. It regulates the collaboration instruments already created such as the Open Government Sectoral Commission and the Open Government Forum and establishes new mechanisms and tools to channel the participation of natural and legal persons in public decisions, with an inclusive approach.
4. Ensuring accountability
The objective of the State accountability forecasts is to regulate the manner in which information is to be implemented both in relation to commitments made at the parliamentary level or in strategic planning instruments, and in relation to operational planning that is monitored by general service inspections.
5. Implementing effective governance and ensuring regulatory compliance
The norm also includes as its primary objectives the guarantee of regulatory compliance and the strengthening of a governance framework that ensures the effective deployment of the commitments undertaken.
5.1. Regulatory Options
(a) Transparency.
As far as regulatory options are concerned, they must necessarily start from the agreed conclusions in the sub-working group created within the Open Government Forum. The sub-working group has made more than 80 proposals intended, on the one hand, to enrich the content of the current articles or to incorporate new ones with the practice that emerged during the years of force of the Law, of the doctrine of the guarantee bodies and of the jurisprudence generated during this time, and, on the other hand, to complete and comply with the obligations that have been demanded in various reports on this matter by various international bodies, as well as to improve the Law’s own system.
All the contributions of the working group can be consulted through the following link.
(b) Integrity
It is proposed to dedicate a specific title to integrity that includes the regulation of the principles of good governance and good administration, the regulation of the prevention of conflicts of interest affecting senior staff, temporary staff with special political advisory functions, managerial staff and public employees, as well as the creation of a standard of due diligence.
These measures are complemented by provisions on the organization and sanction regime aimed at ensuring compliance with the highest standards of public integrity, in line with the provisions of the State Plan to Combat Corruption.
(c) Public participation
At the regional and local levels, wide-ranging normative provisions have been adopted in order to articulate the various participatory channels of the entire citizenry in public decision-making.
It is necessary that at the state level the different ways through which citizens can participate more actively in the formation of public decisions are reflected in a norm.
To this end, the regulatory approach starts from the obligation of the state public authorities to promote broad citizen participation in order to order the different instruments through which it can be channeled, such as public hearings, consultation forums or citizen panels, as well as the different stages of a participatory process.
Other channels of participation must also be taken into account, such as collegiate bodies in which organizations representing social interests participate.
(d) Accountability
Options for the regulation of accountability require determining how to make public both the results of government action at the various territorial levels and the performance of operational instruments, such as plans or programmes, that allow the results of strategic planning of a governmental nature to materialize on the part of governing bodies. Issues such as the structure of these plans or the periodicity of the exercise of accountability may form part of policy forecasts.
It is also proposed that each planning instrument should have an external evaluation system that ensures objectivity in determining compliance with the objectives, always with full respect for the areas of self-organization of each of the public administrations.
5.2. Non-regulatory options
The effectiveness of the normative provisions of the preliminary draft will be reinforced by the deployment of the projects contemplated in Consensus for an Open Administrationwhich provide the necessary technological support for the implementation of the obligations set forth in the Act.
The projects grouped under the axis dedicated to transparency, public participation and accountability are as follows:
a) Transparency by design.
Conceiving digital tools through transparency by design, such as a document manager for the General Administration of the State that favors the fulfillment of the obligations of transparency, allows to incorporate the archival policy, of document normalization, as well as clear language and easy language guidelines.
b) New Transparency Portal of the State Administration.
To build a new Transparency Portal of the State Administration based on the right to know, understand and participate, so that active publicity and the right of access allow citizens to be involved in the public decision-making process.
(c) Improved citizen participation in policies and plans.
Consolidate the experiences of the Fourth Open Government Plan to promote the traceability of standards and citizen participation in the process of developing standards and plans, and design measures to sensitize public employees about the value of participatory processes.
d) Culture of integrity.
To develop the Integrity System of the General Administration of the State in order to consolidate a culture based on ethical values of senior personnel and public employees and to involve the whole of society in its deployment.
(e) Accountability map.
Order the set of planning instruments by objectives of the General Administration of the State in a space that allows to consult its evolution in order to strengthen the culture of effectiveness control and adequate accountability to the citizens.
Based on the above considerations, a period of prior public consultation on the possible content of the planned Royal Decree is opened.
Duration of the consultation: It ends on September 22, 2025.
Email address where to address the comments: consultapublicasefp@digital.gob.es