Santacreu celebrates CGE's endorsement of the "democratic character" of the chambers law

BarcelonaThe president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Chambers, Josep Santacreu, celebrates the definitive endorsement of the Council of Statutory Guarantees (CGE) for the chambers law. The Catalan norm, which will foreseeably reach the Parliament's plenary session at the beginning of the term after a gestation that has lasted more than a decade, passed the examination at the CGE that the Comuns and CUP parliamentary groups requested in mid-July. The left-wing formations asked for a pronouncement from the CGE a few hours after the tense vote in the plenary of the Barcelona Chamber that served to increase the voluntary contribution seats, known as "silver chairs", from the current two to 10. Now the council's endorsement confirms "the legal solidity of the law", in the words of the president.

The "silver chairs" were, precisely, one of the major points of contention that led Comuns and CUP to request the Council's approval. It is, in fact, the measure that has generated the most rifts within the chamber environment in recent weeks, especially among the representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, with the employers' association Pimec at the forefront, and among the members of Eines de País, the pro-independence candidacy that lost the 2023 chamber elections against Santacreu's list, Va d'Empresa. The most critical sectors have called the expansion of voluntary contribution seats an anomaly, which has led to a reduction in seats chosen by business suffrage, from the 52 that exist during this term to 44.

These reservations, however, have not been reflected in the CGE's opinion, which states in its report that the new composition of the plenary –44 seats chosen by the vote of businessmen, 10 "silver chairs", and six seats reserved for the most representative employers' organizations– "does not violate the principle of equality, nor the principle of organization and functioning of the chambers". Santacreu emphasizes, in this regard, that the Council "considers legitimate the participation of companies with the largest voluntary contributions", and that it confirms "the democratic nature" of the model established by the reform approved on July 16.

"Overcoming legal doubts"

Beyond the issue of the chambers law, the CGE's opinion clarifies other points that, as the president himself acknowledges, had generated "legal doubts" in the Catalan economic world – issues that had broken consensus in recent years among all business actors–. The Council members deny, in their opinion, that the representation function that the law recognizes for chambers of commerce clashes with the role of employers' associations and unions. For the organization, "the recognition of the specific function of social agents does not prevent the legislator from promoting the representation and participation of chambers in bodies and areas" related to the economy.

It also declares the role of the chambers to be complementary to that of social agents in the field of vocational training, given the "collaborative and participatory nature" recognized for public law corporations.

Following the decision, Santacreu hopes that debates around the key aspects of the law will dissipate. "We hope that this opinion will allow us to definitively overcome legal doubts and complete a legislative process that has been long and very well-worked," reflects the president of the Barcelona corporation. In the entrepreneur's opinion, "Catalonia needs a law that provides legal certainty for the chambers to develop their function" towards businesses and the country's economy.