of European companies, particularly Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The European legislator questioned the necessity of prior authorizations for economic activities with low inherent risks to the general interest. This gave rise to the concept of “overriding reasons relating to the public interest” as the sole justification for ex-ante systems. The intent was for Member States to conduct a granular analysis to separate activities suitable for agile ex-post oversight from those potentially dangerous to the public interest. However, what followed is well documented. Several European legislators, including Spain’s, failed to transpose the directive within the stipulated timeframe. In a matter of months, most prior authorization schemes were dismantled overnight, treated as if they were entirely prohibited, without any formal assessment of their necessity or proportionality. This unguided deregulation struck down state-level frameworks that served as baseline guidelines for Autonomous Communities that had yet to draft regulations for their respective tourism sectors (Bouazza Ariño, 2022). This deregulation was highly counterproductive, as effective ex-post controls inherently require a dense and clear regulatory baseline. An operator cannot reliably declare compliance with requirements when the activity’s exercise conditions have not been codified in any legal norm. Furthermore, the implementation of declaraciones responsables in Spain suffered from a total lack of enforcement resources. Regional administrations lacked the material and human resources required to conduct subsequent verifications—in many instances, because there were no clear requirements to verify in the first place. This was driven by budgetary deficits or, as seen in Madrid, deliberate policy choices. Today, public tourism administrations find themselves without effective tools to manage overtourism, skyrocketing housing prices, and urban gentrification, alongside the paradoxical depopulation of rural areas. Current interventions are merely reactive stopgaps, as exemplified by the judgment under review. Had the Administration of the Balearic Islands verified compliance prior to the launch of the agroturismo4 activity—or immediately following the submission of the declaración responsable—this legal conflict would have been avoided. 4 Agroturismo (Agritourism / Rural Tourism): A legally codified category of rural accommodation in Spain linked to active agricultural, livestock, or forestry operations, subject to specific regional environmental, zoning, and capacity regulations. 56 ALEJANDRO CORRAL SASTRE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==