Isabel Rodríguez considers the day as “historic” for the improvement of the Catalan competence ceiling “for the first time in a decade”
Vilagrà (ERC) describes the agreements as “scarce” and Puigneró (Junts) as “slow and with little packaging”
two opposing views. Catalan complaints and lamentations and joy at the gradual “return to normality and the institutionality of relations between the State and the Generalitat”, by the Government. And, within the Executiu, greater caution of Laura Vilagrà (ERC) and more forcefulness in the criticism of Jordi Puigneró (Junts).
And it is that the long-awaited second meeting of the bilateral commission between the State and the Generalitat it aired out in just 50 minutes. Everything was already seen for sentencing and there was no surprise. The little that she had to transfer, she transferred; if a technical commission was needed on some matter, it was created, and the administration that showed its discontent before the meeting, continued to do so after it. And this is none other than the Generalitat.
The issues of scholarships, school insurance and financing modules for the administration of justice in Catalonia. A pre-agreement was reached on the minimum vital income, as this newspaper advanced on Tuesday. They crossed facilities, country estates and a five-kilometre highway.
Catalan complaints
The transfers are “few”, both the ‘consellera’ of Presidency, Laura Vilagra, as the vice president and head of Politiques Digitals i Territori, Jordi Puignero. “Pedro Sánchez had better take it seriously or these meetings will only serve to take a picture & rdquor ;, said the vice president, who added that what has been achieved is “of little substance”.
The vision of the Minister for Territorial Policy and spokesperson for the Executive, Elizabeth Rodriguez, stood at the other extreme. “We have reached some historic agreements, in that we have extended Catalonia’s competence ceiling in three areas, something that had not happened for 10 years,” the minister assessed. “We are better than five, six or seven years ago,” said Rodríguez, who always tried to put the meeting in historical perspective, after the events of 2017.
A voice from the Government recognized “that it comes from very low” and that the processing of issues “is cumbersome”, to which the ministries “play hard to get”.
Examination at the will of Sánchez
That yes, the Government raised an examination in the future on the real will that the Government of Pedro Sánchez has to build those trusts to which it always alludes. “Catalonia is not a priority for Sánchez, if it were, the transfers would be more important. We will see what happens with Rodalies, which is the litmus test for the Executive & rdquor ;, Puigneró raised to sentence: “If this bilateral commission is where Sánchez puts the focus, let it be noticed. With transfers of magnitude, such as the management of the airport and all the infrastructures” usually. The leader of Junts, without a doubt, used greater harshness in his expressions than the head of the Presidencywho moved more cautiously.
Previously, at the meeting, the ‘conseller’ of Economy, Jaume Giró, put another challenge on the table. He required payment of the third additional provision of the Statute of 2010, in the period 2009-2013. An addendum to the Autonomous Charter that sought to remedy the recognized historical investment deficit and that the ruling of the Statute of 2010 ruled that the Government was not obliged to pay. The amount varies from year to year and is established by the difference between Catalonia’s contribution to Spanish GDP and the percentage of investment received from the General State Budget. “They are not obliged to pay, but It is a political question, of will&rdquor ;, Vilagrà pointed out, appealing again to the alleged will of the PSOE to build bridges with Catalonia.
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Regarding what was agreed, they create three technical commissions on the issues that have already been agreed to be transferred, and transfer the 30 kilometers of concrete from the Xerta-La Sènia irrigation canal, up to eight municipal treatment plants, which will serve “for the new water culture & rdquor; that the Government wants to implement, declared Vilagrà, as well as the B-23, but not the B-30. The Generalitat is waiting for a series of conditioning works to be carried out on the ring road to take ownership.