115
nevertheless have the satisfaction of witnessing how some of our ‘advantageous innovations’ have found their way into other organisms.
I outline here some of the restrictions placed on the IAC’s ability to manage
its own affairs efficiently. These obstacles were gradually introduced through
successive budgetary laws, but in a particularly abrupt fashion through Law
14/2000 of 29 December concerning fiscal, administrative, and social order
measures, and Law 14/2011 of 1 June concerning Science, Technology, and
Innovation.
The Law concerning Science, Technology, and Innovation sought definitively to level out the differences in the regulations governing the Instituto de
Astrofísica Public Consortium (IAC) by means of its lengthy twenty-seventh
additional disposition, dedicated to the juridical regime of the IAC. This controversial law was introduced by Cristina Garmendia, Minister of Science,
Technology, and Innovation, and her Secretary of State, Felipe Pétriz, when
Mr. Zapatero was President. The most salient aspects of the disposition
were that:
• The IAC was to become simply another Public Research Organism of the
General State Administration.
• It would be left to the Statutes of the IAC, which must be approved by its
Governing Council, to ‘determine its organic, functional, and financial
regime’, always in accordance with ‘what is established for public research
organisms of the State Administration’.
• The mandate, explicitly stated in our Foundational Law, that the ‘Governing
Council shall be constituted by the Minister for Education and Science,
who shall act as Chair, a voting representative of the State Administration,
who shall be named by the Ministry of the Presidency, …’ was to disappear,
the determination of the composition of the Governing Council and all
else that was important in making the IAC different being decided according to the Statutes.
• The regulations governing the Consortium, which formerly held the status
of parliamentary law, were to be reduced to the level of juridico–administrative regulations, to be henceforth modified at the whim of the
Governing Council.
Needless to say, during the drafting of this new law we mobilized and
fought to ensure a different outcome. We did not stand a chance. Not even
with the involvement of Parliament or the Senate was it possible to leave
things as they were before, in spite of the best efforts of Juan Ruiz, then
responsible for science, technology, innovation, and the information society
12 Science Meets Politics…
nevertheless have the satisfaction of witnessing how some of our ‘advantageous innovations’ have found their way into other organisms.
I outline here some of the restrictions placed on the IAC’s ability to manage
its own affairs efficiently. These obstacles were gradually introduced through
successive budgetary laws, but in a particularly abrupt fashion through Law
14/2000 of 29 December concerning fiscal, administrative, and social order
measures, and Law 14/2011 of 1 June concerning Science, Technology, and
Innovation.
The Law concerning Science, Technology, and Innovation sought definitively to level out the differences in the regulations governing the Instituto de
Astrofísica Public Consortium (IAC) by means of its lengthy twenty-seventh
additional disposition, dedicated to the juridical regime of the IAC. This controversial law was introduced by Cristina Garmendia, Minister of Science,
Technology, and Innovation, and her Secretary of State, Felipe Pétriz, when
Mr. Zapatero was President. The most salient aspects of the disposition
were that:
• The IAC was to become simply another Public Research Organism of the
General State Administration.
• It would be left to the Statutes of the IAC, which must be approved by its
Governing Council, to ‘determine its organic, functional, and financial
regime’, always in accordance with ‘what is established for public research
organisms of the State Administration’.
• The mandate, explicitly stated in our Foundational Law, that the ‘Governing
Council shall be constituted by the Minister for Education and Science,
who shall act as Chair, a voting representative of the State Administration,
who shall be named by the Ministry of the Presidency, …’ was to disappear,
the determination of the composition of the Governing Council and all
else that was important in making the IAC different being decided according to the Statutes.
• The regulations governing the Consortium, which formerly held the status
of parliamentary law, were to be reduced to the level of juridico–administrative regulations, to be henceforth modified at the whim of the
Governing Council.
Needless to say, during the drafting of this new law we mobilized and
fought to ensure a different outcome. We did not stand a chance. Not even
with the involvement of Parliament or the Senate was it possible to leave
things as they were before, in spite of the best efforts of Juan Ruiz, then
responsible for science, technology, innovation, and the information society
12 Science Meets Politics…