
Legal report: The importance of time limits in sports ports
Legal report: The importance of time limits in sports ports
The fruit of the agreement of NAUTICA DIGITAL with DAVID MURO, as the first delivery of a series of works really interesting to our world of nautical, the entitled "The importance of the timelines in the marinas" work of the pretigious jurist Guillermo Jiménez Ruiz, director of the Legal Department of Saéz Abogados, S.L.
The timelines of the sports ports
The seaports are a major engine of socio-economic growth on the Spanish coastal coast. They contribute to job creation and economic development. They are also of strategic importance in environmental quality, city integration and interterritorial cohesion. And they are a great attraction for the improvement of our tourism and sustainable leisure offer.
The importance of time limits
In this area, the deadline for concessions on seaports is an essential element. The time limit determines the amortization period and the level of private investment that is possible.
Large concessional deadlines guarantee better ports, as they allow for greater investment and the provision of better services. To cite only a few virtues, they contribute to the enrichment of infrastructure, guarantee greater quality and customer satisfaction, are more profitable for public interests (tax collection) and encourage stable and quality employment.
In addition, many families have made relevant investments for the acquisition of a mooring or the establishment of a business in the ports. And this usually involves the organization of your life, activities and interests around the port: rents or purchases of nearby homes, development of affective, social and professional ties, etc... For all of them, the guarantee of reasonable, sufficient and certain time limits is absolutely essential.
Regulatory insecurity
For many years, since the late 80's and early 90's, dealers, professionals and customers in the marinas have experienced with great concern the uncertainty and regulatory disparity in this area. There were dissenting rules and interpretations as to the time limits for which certain concessions had been granted or for which an acquirer of a mooring in a port could enjoy it. Amarres acquired for 50 years could be limited to 30 years, affecting legal certainty and the rights and interests of individuals. And the expiry date was set in 2018 or 2022, according to the interpretation given to the legislative framework.
Legislative modernization
Since 2003, the State has assumed the need to provide the port system with greater security, to homogenize Spanish deadlines with Europeans and to promote investments with more appropriate depreciation periods. The aim is to promote more cost-effective, efficient, competitive and technologically targeted ports.
At present, the maximum period of concessions granted by the State in ports of general interest is 50 years. And a transitional regime has been included to extend pre-existing concessions within this limit, which in fact means the 12-year extension of many of the concessions granted prior to 2003 to promote productive and improvement investments in ports and their environments.
In the same vein, the autonomous laws have evolved. Virtually all the Autonomous Communities have adapted their own laws to establish the concession time limits in 50 years, either by the express approval of that time limit in their laws (e.g. Galicia or Basque Country, with its recent Law 2 / 2018 of 28 June, of Ports and Maritime Transport of the Basque Country) or by reference to state regulation (e.g. Murcia, Catalonia or Cantabria).
Recent developments
Recently, some Autonomous Communities are making even more courageous progress in the widespread trend towards the consolidation of longer deadlines.
The first step was taken by the Canarias with its Law 4 / 2017, which has been the first Autonomous Community to exceed the 50-year period and raise it to 75 years.
And now in Andalusia, thanks to the broad consensus (support from PSOE, PP and Citizens) it seems that the proposed law on the amendment of Law 21 / 2007 of 18 December of the legal and economic regime of the ports of Andalusia extending the maximum period of concessions granted prior to the entry into force of the law to 75 years will be successful.
Ports of the 21st century
These developments are of great strategic importance, as they will allow the consolidation of the Spanish marinas as international reference for their modernity, quality and competitiveness. And it will help to improve the attractiveness of our coastal coast and the development of the tourism, sports and leisure sector, which are so important in our country.
Guillermo Jiménez Ruiz
Director Legal Department
Sáez Abogados, S.L.
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