Pension benefits for the departing President
As established by the fifth additional provision of Law 21/1986 (dated 23 December 1986) on the State General Budget for the year 1987, the members of the Constitutional Court who have served in the capacity of President shall be entitled to receive – in accordance with the first paragraph of article 10, number 5 of Law 74/1980 (dated 29 December 1981) on the State General Budget for the year 1981 – a pension benefit at the end of their mandate. This allowance shall be paid in the form of a monthly instalment allocated for a period equal to the period of the mandate served, subject to a maximum of 24 months. The amount of the contribution shall represent one-twelfth of the President's total remuneration budgeted in the applicable reference period. This compensatory pension is subject to the incompatibility regime established in Article 1 of Decree-Law 20/2012 (dated 13 July 2012) on measures to guarantee budgetary stability and promote competitiveness, as well as in the first additional provision of Law 3/2015 (dated 30 March 2015) governing the performance of the duties of senior officials in the General State Administration and in the second additional provision of the Regulation on the Organisation and Personnel of the Constitutional Court.
By virtue of the aforementioned provisions, the monthly payments corresponding to the departure of the last incumbent President Emeritus – H.E. M. Francisco Pérez de los Cobos Orihuel – shall begin to be paid as from 15 March 2017, the date on which he ceased to hold office as President of the Constitutional Court and shall terminate on 14 March 2019 (period from 1 to 14 March). For information purposes, the payments corresponding to this pension benefit included in the Budget of the Constitutional Court amount to 99,735.58 euros (financial year 2017, 126,597.60 euros (financial year 2018) and 25.864,03 euros (financial year 2019).
Transitional allowance
Article 25(1) of the Organic Law on the Constitutional Court sets out that: “Judges of the Constitutional Court having served a minimum of three years shall be entitled to a one-year transitional allowance equivalent to that accruing to them on leaving office”.
Also, the second additional provision to the Regulation on the Organization and Personnel of the Constitutional Court, in its wording given by the Plenary Agreement of 23 July 2015, provides the following:
- 1. Judges of the Constitutional Court having served a minimum of three years shall be entitled to a one-year transitional allowance equivalent to that accruing to them on leaving office. This allowance shall also include those periods of three years that have been acknowledged during their time in office.
- 2. The outgoing Judge may choose between receiving the transitional allowance in whole or in instalments, at his or her request.
- 3. In case of death, the transitional allowance shall be equally transmitted to his or her spouse and children with the same extent, scope and content.
- 4. For the purposes of the first additional provision of Law 3/2015, of 30 March, the members of the Constitutional Court who choose to receive a compensatory benefit or a transitional allowance after leaving office, may only exercise public or private activities after having waived their right to receive any remuneration or consideration, without prejudice to any legally compatible activities.
In accordance with the aforementioned rules, the monthly payments corresponding to the transitional allowance of H.E. Mr. Fernando Valdés Dal-Ré will be granted from the month of November 2020, with effect from the date he left office, i.e. 16 October 2020. This allowance will be paid until the month of October 2021 (having economic effects from 1 to 16 October). Payments corresponding to this concept amount to EUR 35,679.37 for the financial year of 2020 and to EUR 136,693.67 for the financial year of 2021, and will be both financed through the budget of the Constitutional Court.