:Mancomunidad

In general, mancomunidades are aimed at carrying out projects or providing common services.{{Sfn|Cools|Verbeek|2013|loc=Explanatory Memorandum, paragraph 32 on page 10}}{{sfn|Colino|del Pino|2010|p=363}}

A mancomunidad has legal personality, and can exist either for a particular period to achieve a concrete goal or can exist indefinitely.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

A mancomunidad is similar to a comarca, with the difference that comarca has somewhat different meanings in the various autonomous communities of Spain and mancomunidad is defined identically throughout the country. The municipalities in a single mancomunidad need not be coterminous (though they usually are). They are required to set a clear goal, create management bodies distinct from those of the individual municipalities, and provide the mancomunidad with its own budget.

There are a number of historical or natural regions that, despite the strong identity and common goals of their inhabitants, are divided by provincial or even ancient kingdom boundaries. Examples of such regions are Tierra de Campos, Manchuela and Ilercavonia. Such regions or comarcas have often not been able to achieve the necessary legal recognition for their administrative development within the existing provincial or autonomous frameworks. Therefore, their municipalities have resorted to organizing themselves into a mancomunidad.[http://www.tierradecampos.com Mancomunidad de Tierra de Campos]

Other groups of municipalities that do not face the problem of borders cutting across their natural region or comarca may form a mancomunidad for economic reasons, to improve local services or in order alleviate some form of historical administrative neglect owing to distance from and lack of communication with current administrative centers.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mancomunitatvalltenes.cat/index.php?disclaimer=1 |title=Mancomunitat Intermunicipal de la Vall del Tenes |access-date=2010-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828222636/http://www.mancomunitatvalltenes.cat/index.php?disclaimer=1 |archive-date=2011-08-28 |url-status=dead }}

The term mancomunidad and its cognates are also used to translate the English word "commonwealth".{{cite web |url=https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2021/11/30/61a4a639fdddff69a08b45e3.html |title=La Commonwealth: ¿qué es y qué países la integran? |last=Reyes |first=Ana Gómez |date= 30 November 2021 |website= |publisher=El Mundo |access-date=27 September 2024}}

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book| last1=Colino| first1=César |last2=del Pino| first2=Eloísa| editor-first1=Frank | editor-first2=Anders | editor-first3=John | editor-last1=Hendriks | editor-last2=Lidström | editor-last3=Loughlin | chapter=Spain: The consolidation of strong regional governments and the limits of local decentralisation |title= The Oxford Handbook of Subnational Democracy in Europe| publisher= Oxford University Press| year=2010| pages= 356–383 |

doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199562978.001.0001| isbn=978-0199562978 }}

• {{cite web|title=Local Government Act, Organic Law 7/1985| url=https://www.boe.es/eli/es/l/1985/04/02/7/con |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |access-date=12 June 2022 |year=1985|language=Spanish|ref={{harvid|Local Government Act|1985}}}}
• {{Cite book |date=19–21 March 2013 |title=Local and regional democracy in Spain |first1=Marc |last1=Cools |first2=Leen |last2=Verbeek |author-link2=Leen Verbeek |url=https://rm.coe.int/168071969f |publisher=Council of Europe }}
• {{Cite web |last=Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation |title=Register of Local Entities |url=https://ssweb.seap.minhap.es/REL/frontend/inicio/index |access-date=10 June 2022 |language=es|website=Local Entity Portal|ref={{harvid|Register of Local Entities|}}}}

• {{in lang|es}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20100701012558/http://www.dgal.map.es/cgi-bin/webapb/webdriver?MIval=mancprov Mancomunidades in Spain], interactive map.
• [http://www.tierradecaballeros.com Mancomunidad Tierra de Caballeros]
• [http://www.terradecelanova.es Web Mancomunidad Terra de Celanova]

Category:Government of Spain

Category:Forms of local government