Illa gives impetus to the legislature with the new bilateral agreements with the Government
The main political conclusion that emerges from the new round of bilateral meetings between the central government and the Catalan government, held this Monday in Barcelona, is that, in the short and medium term, the Catalan legislature will enjoy sufficient stability. This is clear from gestures, not minor, such as the meeting on Saturday between Salvador Illa and the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, as well as from the scope of the agreements sealed today between the central government and the Catalan government on security, justice and investments. All this is pending the formalisation, this Friday, of those considered most relevant, on the cancellation of the Catalan public debt and the financing of the autonomous communities.
The meeting at the Palau between Illa and Junqueras already pointed to a good outcome. The photo of both leaders represents the satisfaction of the Republicans with the degree of compliance with the agreements for the investiture of Illa. The leader of ERC even boasted about it on Saturday, having managed to get agreements such as the Rodalies one sealed in 10 months and not throughout the legislature, and he boasted on Monday of having agreed with the Government a forgiveness of 17,104 million euros of the debt of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA), 22% of the Catalan debt, thus exceeding the estimate indicated in the investiture agreement - 15,000 million, 20% -. "We have gone beyond what was initially planned," certified the leader of ERC. This amount represents 20.5% of the debt that the Government plans to forgive for all the autonomous regions, a total of 83.252 billion euros .
Junqueras defended his party's negotiating capacity at a time when Pedro Sánchez's government is trying to rebuild relations with its partners, especially with Junts, which is why the Republicans not only take on the agreements reached in the bilateral commissions as their own but also claim their authorship.
The commitment is to increase the Mossos staff to 25,000 agents by 2030 and have 60 new judicial units.Although the agreement on the removal of the FLA still has to be ratified in the Economic and Fiscal Affairs Committee to be held on Friday 28th, from the committees held this Monday, the Generalitat-State Bilateral Committee and the Joint Transfer Committee, headed by the Minister of Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres and the Minister of the Presidency Albert Dalmau, around twenty agreements emerged that comply with the precepts agreed with ERC and Comuns for the investiture of Illa.
Read also Junqueras announces that the Government will forgive 17.104 million of debt Alex Tort
Particularly important for the Socialist Government are the agreements on security and justice. On the one hand, the central Government has made the commitment to increase the number of Mossos d'Esquadra officers to 25,000 by 2030, thus exceeding the ceiling of 22,006 agreed at the security meeting in 2021. On the other hand, an increase in the number of judges in Catalonia has been sealed - the Government estimates about 60 more to reach the Spanish average of 12 judges per 100,000 inhabitants - to combat multiple criminal recidivism more effectively. In any case, the agreement provides for the convening of a meeting during the second half of this year to specify the necessary positions.
The investment consortium required by ERC will be created and the resources corresponding to the third additional amount will be calculated.Another of the important agreements sealed this Monday has to do with investments and the third additional provision of the Statute, which deals precisely with this matter. The Government and the Generalitat have agreed to move forward with the creation of the investment consortium provided for in the investiture agreements with ERC, an organisation that will have the objective of monitoring and accelerating the State's investments in Catalonia and which, according to the PSC, is intended to be operational in January 2026.
The agreement linked to compliance with the third additional provision of the Statute ratifies the will of the two governments to "give it positive compliance", so that the creation of a working group is agreed to calculate the amount of resources that correspond to Catalonia as a result of the third additional provision between the years 2009 and 2013.
The Government plans an agreement to alleviate the lack of secretaries and auditors in the town hallsAnother of the agreements to which Illa's Government attaches special importance is the one related to municipal civil servants with national qualification. Dalmau and Minister Óscar López reached an agreement last month so that the Generalitat, for the first time, would take charge of a promotion of more than 200 municipal civil servants with national qualification to cover part of the lack of secretaries, auditors and treasurers, and with the agreement signed, the Generalitat will be able to promote the public offer of positions for civil servants with national qualification, as well as the selection, training, appointment and assignment, as the Basque Country currently does. In Catalonia only 36% of the 1,569 positions for civil servants with national qualification are filled.
“More Mossos, more courts, more resources, and more powers to strengthen our self-government,” said Minister Dalamu in a joint press conference with Minister Torres after the commissions. Dalmau highlighted the “new stage focused on providing solutions to the real problems of citizens” that prevails in the Generalitat and the fact that “the policy of collaboration gives better results than the policy of confrontation,” something he agreed with Torres on.
The delegations of the central government and the Government, headed by Minister Torres and Minister Dalamau, met in today's bilateral commissions in Barcelona
Alex GarciaFor his part, the minister stressed that “it is a good day for the Government”, after receiving the news of the withdrawal of the Junts motion of confidence, and that “governing means responding to the agreements and moving forward with those who have made this government, the investiture and the legislature possible”. On the other hand, “I do not know if it is a good day for those who are in catastrophism and in denial”, he questioned in reference to the PP.
The Government and the Generalitat have also agreed to create a working group to create a one-stop shop for integrated citizen support; the transfer of two buildings in Barcelona and the creation of another working group to identify plots of land and properties of the State that may be of interest to the Generalitat.
Likewise, up to 14 transfers that were already agreed to be transferred in 2022) but were still pending have been unblocked. These include the transfer of ownership of water infrastructures such as the Xerta Sènia canal (Tarragona) and a dozen waterworks; in terms of nature conservation, the transfer of two rural properties, and in education, the management of scholarships, which from next year will be permanent on the part of the Government and for which the Generalitat will receive a transfer of 2.1 million euros per year.
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