Spain report urges repeal or reform of 453 laws

453 of the 598 Spanish laws passed between 2004 and 2025 should be scrapped, simplified or substantially reformed, two research groups say. They presented their report at CEU San Pablo University in Madrid on Thursday, 5 November 2026. The Centro de Estudios, Formación y Análisis Social (CEU CEFAS) and the Instituto Juan de Mariana examined laws from the governments of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez.

What the groups want to change

The groups recommend repealing 132 laws outright and making major changes to 191. They want 99 others reviewed for extra requirements Spain added when putting European Union rules into national law. Removing a further 31, linked to commitments under Spain’s Recovery Plan, would require talks with the European Commission. The remaining 145 are not priorities for change in the short term.

The authors say they are not calling for laws to be scrapped indiscriminately. Their proposals include changes to education and employment law, simpler obligations for self-employed workers and less paperwork for businesses. They also point to rules they consider outdated or overlapping with newer ones.

Software helps sift through the laws

The project uses artificial intelligence to process 649,000 entries in Spain’s official state gazette. It compares laws with more than 5,000 documents from bodies including the European Commission and the Bank of Spain.

The groups say the software cannot make the final call. Lawyers, economists and public policy specialists must check its findings, including whether removing a law would create contradictions or leave a gap in the rules.

Topics: Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com