Deadlock
What happens when a level cannot agree, and what happens to provision while the procedure runs on.
Article 98(2): where a level fails to reconcile within the time fixed for the round, the matter passes to the level above with the positions of the parties and the reasons for the disagreement.
Article 98(3): where the Congress fails to reconcile, it decides by vote of its delegates, publishes the dissenting positions, and states the reasons for the choice made among the variants.
Article 98(5): delay in the procedure in no case suspends the essential provision of Article 62, which continues on the quantities of the preceding period until the new plan takes effect.
The escalation
| Level | What it reconciles | What it refers upward |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace, user and neighbourhood assemblies | Their own statements of need and capacity | What the commune must settle |
| Commune | Local needs against local capacity | What exceeds the commune |
| Sub-region and region | Territorial balances, through the regional economic councils | What exceeds the region |
| Branch federation | Balances within a branch across territories | What exceeds the branch |
| National Planning Congress | What the levels below failed to reconcile | Nothing. The Congress decides by vote. |
A matter arrives here with the positions of the parties and the reasons for their disagreement attached, so the Congress decides on the same record the level below had.
Recording of agreement
Article 98(1): reconciliation seeks agreement among the affected interests, and a level records agreement only where the enterprises, the users and the ecological delegate have each been heard and answered.
Three parties must be answered before agreement is recorded anywhere: the enterprises that would produce, the users who would receive, and the ecological delegate. An unanswered objection from any of the three leaves the matter unreconciled, and it passes upward.
The limit on a decision by vote
Article 98(4): a decision under Article 98(3) that does not conform with Article 91 is void, and any person may bring an action under Article 43.
A vote of the Congress settles a contested question and creates no power to depart from the order Title IV establishes. A decision that does not conform with Article 91 produces no legal effect, and any person may say so before the Constitutional Court without fee.
Provision during the procedure
The essential provision of Article 62 continues on the quantities of the preceding period. Food, water, sanitation, housing, energy, care, transport and communication are unaffected by any deadlock in the Congress.
The Republic went through a fourteen-week vacancy in 2025 with no constitutional organ in place, and provision continued throughout on the preceding quantities. The historic record maintained by the Office of Constitutional Revision sets out those weeks.