Chambers: Catalonia ends a decade of differential fact

BarcelonaCatalonia is about to put an end to the anomaly of more than a decade of being practically the only autonomous community without its own chamber of commerce law. A curious differential fact. During this time, stages such as Quim Torra's as president of the Generalitat have been experienced, with an attempt at interventionism that brought unions and employers' associations together against it. Or the most recent controversy over the memberships obtained by large companies by paying (the so-called silver chairs).

In any case, now, if there are no surprises as on other occasions, the text promoted by the PSC, Junts, ERC and the PPC could be approved at the Parliament plenary session that will begin next Tuesday. The project has passed the opinion of the Statutory Guarantee Council requested by the Comuns and the CUP regarding the silver chairs and representativeness. This point, which for the Barcelona Chamber means going from two paid memberships (Criteria-La Caixa and RACC) to ten, was opposed by SMEs, with Pimec at the forefront. In fact, it was saved at the chamber plenary session with the casting vote of the president, Josep Santacreu.

The plenary session of the Barcelona corporation has 60 members. Six are shared between Foment and Pimec. There are two silver chairs and 52 places by universal suffrage. With the new legal framework, starting from the next term (the elections are next year), the members elected by ballot will be 44, eight fewer. That is why the members of the pro-independence candidacy that governed the previous term, and the companies linked to Pimec and this same employers' association, opposed the change. They see more decision-making power for large companies in it.

An essential point for the chambers is that the regulation establishes and ensures a system of resources for the public functions that are delegated to them, after years of suffering since the mandatory fee paid by companies was abolished in 2010. Another issue is whether 13 chambers are needed in Catalonia and whether the reluctance with the employers' associations regarding the role of each party will disappear.

In any case, the regulation arrives in a strained business climate. The G-8 lobby, which includes Pimec along with other economic and business entities –including the Chamber–, seems to have consolidated itself in the midst of the struggle over the chambers, after the blessing of President Pedro Sánchez with the meeting they held in Barcelona. The great absentee is Foment del Treball, led by Josep Sánchez Llibre, who did not want to be part of a forum promoted by the president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete; and that of the Cercle d'Economia from 2019 to 2022, Javier Faus. And it maintains an occasional relationship with it (as with the issue of regional financing), but a distant one.