Defense condemned for denying special services to soldiers who went to work at NATO

Two almost consecutive sentences, issued at the end of last March, confirm that the Ministry of Defence was wrong to deny special services to two soldiers who went to NATO. The plaintiffs, a commander of the Land Army and a sergeant of the Air Force, They had to take voluntary leaves of absence so as not to lose the opportunity to work for the company. Atlantic Alliance. The judges thus annul the decision of the Undersecretary of Defense, Adoration Mateos.

In both cases, according to the resolutions to which this newspaper has had access, it is described that the Undersecretary decided not to grant the status of special services to the two soldiers despite the fact that the Military Career Law It is very clear. According to this rule, once a military member has acquired the status of NATO statutory personnel, the declaration in the status of special services is mandatory by law.

However, each of them were denied twice at different times in 2023, always according to the sentences, one of the Central Administrative Litigation Court number 10 of Madrid and another of court number 8.

In the case of the sergeant, his first assignment in NATO was in the United Kingdom, specifically in the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA). Afterwards it was in this same agency, but with destination in USA. The commander, for her part, was in the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), with destination in Capellen (Luxembourg).

Court number 10 explains that Defense committed an erroneous interpretation of NATO internal regulations by denying the sergeant’s request. In the case of the commander, it is the case that a previous resolution had already declared her in the special services situation for that same position in the NSPA. Therefore, there was an administrative precedent favorable to his case. Both one and the other, furthermore, They had the necessary NATO documentation to request that special services situation without having to justify anything else.

The lawyer for both plaintiffs, Antonio Surez-Valds, denounces that “the Ministry of Defense has been systematically denying “for two years now the possibility of working in a special service situation to its military personnel who are selected to serve on a permanent basis in its different agencies.”

Alone in his office, he assures, They have around 50 appealed cases similar to these two.

Furthermore, the lawyer explained that cases like this “are a continuous practice of the Ministry of Defense, which affects hundreds of Spanish soldiers, who are forced to undertake this type of appeal,” since “this is done even against what expressly stipulated in the current regulations and offering a series of strange excuses without the slightest foundation”.

The striking thing, he adds, is that now that 75 years have passed since the creation of the alliance, the ministry still has different criteria when it comes to granting something that is clearly contemplated in the regulations.

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