The Catalan Government and Esquerra Republicana have today taken another step forward in their strategy to create a parity consortium between the State and the Generalitat to help alleviate the historical deficit in infrastructure investment by the central Government in Catalonia. On the 29th, the initial vote will take place in the Congress of Deputies for the creation of said investment consortium, proposed by Esquerra Republicana. It is still unclear where the necessary votes for the initiative to prosper will come from, but for now, the promoters and a part of the Catalan economic world have chosen to pressure, albeit without directly mentioning them, Junts per Catalunya, whose seven deputies are indispensable in the operation for the priority body to see the light. “We are very pleased that we are taking a step forward,” summarized this Monday the president of the Cercle d’Economia, Teresa Garcia-Milà, during a presentation event at the entity’s headquarters, where Pimec and the Cambra de Comerç were also present.
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“Big issues cannot be stalled,” added Josep Santacreu, president of the Cambra. His Pimec counterpart, Antoni Cañete, urged the need for “country consensuses” for “Catalonia’s priorities” to move forward. There were no Foment representatives at the event. Junts was not mentioned at any point, but on several occasions, the message seemed to be directed at them.
Subsequently, at the press conference of Carles Puigdemont’s party, spokesperson Josep Rius described the parity body as “unnecessary” and demanded that the central Government send Catalonia the money that is budgeted but not ultimately invested. “There is no need to create new things,” Rius argued. “It is only necessary that all that money that had been budgeted and not executed be transferred directly to the Generalitat,” he said. Asked directly whether his words anticipate a negative vote from Junts on the Consortium, Rius’s response was hesitant: “I didn’t say that. I said that Junts’ position is that the Consortium is unnecessary.”
“It’s not all just about money. Co-governance is not Esquerra’s ultimate goal, which is independence, but what it allows us to do is align everything to respond to the country’s needs,” republican spokesperson Isaac Albert subsequently argued at his party’s press conference, following the El Cercle event.
Albert assured that his party will dedicate itself fully to ensuring that not only Junts but also the other parties that support Pedro Sanchez’s Government in Congress, such as Bildu or BNG, support this path. He also recalled that any other autonomous community (CCAA) can try to seek this path of interference to improve the percentage of investment execution. The consortium was one of the points of the investiture agreement between ERC and PSC that led Salvador Illa to the presidency of the Generalitat.
At the event in El Cercle, the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, and ERC’s chief negotiator, Lluís Salvador, showed great harmony in the presentation of the parity consortium, which, among other things, involves the joint preparation of the Multiannual Investment Plan, will coordinate the state entities that execute them, and will have to control and evaluate all works. “I don’t like to compare myself. In Madrid, execution percentages are above 100%,” Albert assured, after recalling that in several fiscal years in Catalonia, they have not exceeded 50%.
Garcia-Milà assured that a major indicator of the consortium’s success, which should be formed within six months once approved in Congress, would be for execution to exceed 90%. Santacreu and Cañete, for their part, emphasized the planning that can be done for key infrastructures for the next 20 and 30 years.
Romero and Salvadó agreed in repeating that with the launch of the body, it moves “from complaint to proposal.” However, many of the details of how the consortium and the commercial company responsible for its day-to-day operations will function will depend on the statutes of both, which will be approved within a bilateral Government-Generalitat commission. The republican negotiator, however, recalled that although ERC registered the text, it has already been agreed upon by both the Govern and the Ministries of Economy and Transport. He does not rule out, however, that there may be some last-minute amendment to try to attract the necessary votes.
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