The Statute of Autonomy of Ceuta ( es, Estatuto de Autonomía de Ceuta) is the basic institutional norm of the

autonomous city Autonomous city is a type of autonomous administrative division. Argentina The 1994 amendment of the Constitution of Argentina granted Buenos Aires city, previously the federal district of Argentina, the status of autonomous city, to allow its c ...

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

. It was approved by the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets ...

through

Organic Law An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state. By country France Under Article ...

1/1995 of March 13, published in the ''

Boletín Oficial del Estado The ''Boletín Oficial del Estado'' (''BOE''; " en, Official State Gazette, label=none", from 1661 to 1936 known as the ''Gaceta de Madrid'', " en, Madrid Gazette, label=none") is the official gazette of the Spain, Kingdom of Spain and may be p ...

'' the following day. At the same time, the

Statute of Autonomy of Melilla The Statute of Autonomy of Melilla ( es, Estatuto de Autonomía de Melilla) is the basic institutional norm of the autonomous city of Melilla, in Spain. It is an organic law approved on 13 March 1995 and published in the Official State Gazette (''Bo ...

was also approved.

Process

The

Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...

establishes in its Fifth Transitory Provision: In turn, Article 144 establishes: Since 1981, the recognition of autonomy had previously been sought on several occasions without reaching a consensus of the various political forces in its formulation, what originated in the city the appearance of diverse protest platforms that urged the political class for its treatment, which finally took place within the framework of the Autonomous Agreements between PP and

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

of 1992. The main point of dissension originated in the treatment of the political regime, by which one of the parties wished to give it a status similar to that of an autonomy but not equal, while the other desired that, as an integral part of the Spanish Nation and according to the aforementioned Fifth Transitory Provision, full autonomy will be granted. Finally, the consensus came through the figure of the Autonomous City.

Reaction in Morocco

The

Moroccan government Politics of Morocco take place in a framework of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, whereby the prime minister of Morocco is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative ...

considers that Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the

Plazas de Soberanía The ''plazas de soberanía'' (, lit. "strongholds of sovereignty") is a term describing a series of Spanish overseas minor territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco or that are closer to Africa than Europe. This term ...

located on the

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

n coast, are occupied territory that must be reintegrated. The statute of Autonomy of Ceuta establishes in its preliminary title that Ceuta is an integral and indissoluble part of the Spanish Nation, which rejects any consideration of the Moroccan claims. Both in the framework of its project and in its approval, there were several protests by the Moroccan executive, as well as other political leaders of the country, that calmed down by the end of 1995.

Later reforms

Since 2005 there is a project to reform the statute, which among its main objectives has to be called finally an autonomous community and acquire greater powers, limited in its regime due to its special nature.

References

External links

Organic Law 1/1995, of March 13, Statute of Autonomy of Ceuta.

{{Ceuta 1995 in Spain

History of Ceuta