1. Background

On March 14, the Spanish Government approved the declaration of the state of alarm to deal with the health emergency caused by COVID-19 in Spain, through Royal Decree 463/2020.

This Royal Decree established “the suspension and interruption of procedural periods“, that specified that their calculation “shall continue at the moment the Royal Decree or its extensions end“.

Besides it stated the “suspension of administrative deadlines” and the substantive deadlines (i.e., the corresponding deadlines of the actions and rights that could be affected by the statute of limitations and lapse ––“caducidad” and “prescripción” in Spanish Law).

So far, it seemed clear that the deadlines would be continued when the state of alarm ended, but they would not be restarted.

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