Last February 5, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling declaring constitutional the Foral Law 2/2014, of February 17, which regulates the governing bodies of certain foundations. However, this constitutionality is conditioned to the restrictive interpretation of the Foral Law, which will only be applicable to the ¿ordinary¿ foundations coming from the transformation of former Savings Banks.

And then, what is going to happen with the CajaNavarra Foundation?

In order to understand the practical consequences of this ruling, it is necessary to understand, as a starting point, what the CajaNavarra Foundation is. The CajaNavarra Foundation is a "banking" foundation. And it is so because it complies with one of the requirements that the Law on Savings Banks and Banking Foundations of December 2013 requires for a foundation arising from the transformation of a former savings bank to be considered as such. Specifically, that it can appoint or dismiss any member of the committee administration of a bank. And, as is public and notorious, the CajaNavarra Foundation, on behalf of its shareholding, can appoint one of the members of the committee of Administration of Caixabank.

And this is so in spite of the fact that, surprisingly, the exhibition of Motives of the commented Foral Law qualifies it as ordinary. It happens, however, that the Constitutional Court has not entered to judge the content of the exhibition of Motives, focusing exclusively on the articles where, however, this issue is not mentioned. For this reason, the Constitutional Court has given validity to the Foral Law.

This being so, being that the CajaNavarra Foundation is, in application of the State Law, a banking foundation, the Foral Law 2/2014 does not apply to it, since its addressees are - and can only be, as interpreted by the Constitutional Court - ordinary foundations.

The consideration of Fundación CajaNavarra as banking or ordinary is not a whim, nor is it something that is in its hands to choose. Nor is it in the hands of the Government of Navarra, which at the time appointed a Management Commission in application of another State Law (Law 9/2012, of November 14). It is the result, at final, of the application of the laws in force, to which we are all subject. Also the Parliament of Navarra.

Not even the state legislator has been, at this point, totally unaware of the influences coming from the Troika, as a consequence of the bank bailout and the commitments assumed by Spain in the Memorandum of Understanding. An influence that has led it to design a model of banking foundations under the supervision of the Bank of Spain. Thus, and among other particularities of its legal regime, the need to reinforce controls over the appointments of its trustees, so as to guarantee their depoliticization and dissociation from the interests of political parties and business and trade union associations, establishing requirements of commercial and professional honorability and, in some cases, of knowledge and experience for the exercise of their functions, stands out.

Consequently and as could not be otherwise, the CajaNavarra Foundation once its bylaws were approved in July 2014, has accommodated its operating rules to the legal framework of banking foundations, including the rules for the appointment of trustees, which the Bank of Spain supervises.

Seen in this light, it can be said that the legal battle between the Parliament of Navarre and the State in the matter of the CajaNavarra Foundation has ended in a draw. On the one hand, the Parliament has seen confirmed the validity of the Law it passed a little less than a year ago, achieving, in addition, that the Constitutional Court recognizes the skill of Navarre in subject of ordinary foundations. On the other hand, the State is guaranteed its skill in subject of banking foundations, while confirming that the Government of Navarre would have acted correctly in this topic.

But, who will then be the ordinary foundations to which the Foral Law 2/2014 is called to apply? Although it may come as a surprise, none. And the fact is that there is no "foundation coming from the transformation of the Savings Banks in Navarra" (art. 1.1 LF 2/2014) that can be qualified as ordinary. The result is a Law that has no addressee and does not apply to anyone.