Juan Ignacio Navas Marqués

Navas & Cusí have filed several complaints with the European Commission concerning banking malpractice. The first of these complaints was filed in 2013 already, concerning banking malpractice and the liability of the Kingdom of Spain, the Bank of Spain and the National Securities Market Commission. Through it, Navas & Cusi filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging the Kingdom of Spain's failure to comply with two directives, Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID) and Directive 93/13/EEC on consumer protection.
Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID) requires EU countries to harmonise the rules governing investment services and activities. To that end, EU countries must set up an authorisation system enabling investment firms to operate throughout the EU. These firms must be registered and the register must be accessible to the public. Each authorisation is notified to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 93/13/EEC is a European Union directive (then called European Economic Community directive) governing the use of surprising or onerous terms used by business in deals with consumers.
Until today, we still have legal standing and the proceedings are still ongoing and pending. Nevertheless, all the claims sought by the firm have been successful to date.

Navas & Cusí recently complained to the European Commission in defense of civil servants in the service of the Spanish public administration. This is a group that has been suffering from a situation of abuse and illegality in the temporary nature of recruitment for decades. Specifically, the illegality lies in the lack of effectiveness of Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP. That legislation, provides that its purpose is to impose limits on the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts or relationships by means of effective measures to protect workers. However, despite the Directive's express prohibition on the abusive use of temporary employment contracts, the Spanish public sector has been encouraging public services to abuse temporary contracts and the interim employment of civil servants without a fixed-term contract for around twenty years. As a result, Spain has one of the highest percentages of temporary contracts in the public sector in the EU, despite the many rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union which expressly refer to the non-compliance and abusive nature of the Spanish State.
Consequently, in view of this evident and palpable non-compliance by Spain, a complaint has been lodged with the Commission so that the latter, using its sanctioning powers, may initiate a sanctioning procedure obliging the Kingdom of Spain to correctly and adequately apply Directive 1999/70/EC and put an end to the abuse of temporary employment once and for all. All this will be addressed, in turn, to the European Parliament by means of a petition with the aim of bringing this non-compliance to its attention.

As for the petitions to the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament, a petition was filed on behalf of a group of doctors in response to the failure of the Spanish State and the European Commission to fulfil the Directive 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on the distribution of insurance. This directive was transposed in Spain and insurers imposed their fees on private medical professionals by unilaterally determining a scale of fees, without allowing doctors' proposals in this regard. This means that the performance of their doctors is not evaluated in a way that conflicts with the greater wellbeing of the patient. The same applies to podiatry, physiotherapy, nursing and oncology staff.
As a result of the above, Navas & Cusí raised a number of questions related to this issue and following examination by Parliament, the petition has now been declared admissible as the matter is considered to fall within the European Union's sphere of action. The petition number is 0249/2021.