The future of Europe is also played out in Catalonia
Europe is experiencing a moment that does not allow for inertia. Artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and data are already part of the major decisions of our time, as they determine how we produce, how we research, how we provide public services, and how we decide with our own voice. Europe must choose whether to reinvent itself while maintaining its values – democracy, rights, humanism, and social cohesion – or whether to accept that other powers will set the rules for the future.
Catalonia wants to regain economic leadership and contribute to the first response. It can do so because it has talent, productive capacity, scientific knowledge, a business fabric, and an industrial tradition that knows how to read fundamental changes. The bid to host a European artificial intelligence gigafactory in Móra la Nova expresses this desire. An opportunity to put Catalonia's creativity and economic power at the service of Europe and the well-being of citizens.
This is the course set by President Illa for the Government: to seize the opportunities offered by the European project, to seek complicity and understanding with the government of Spain, and to ensure that prosperity is shared by the entire territory. The agreement made public on Wednesday between the State, the Generalitat, and private actors stems from this way of understanding useful politics, a politics that does not confuse ambition with noise nor the defense of Catalonia's interests with isolation.
Catalonia is regaining the ambition to host international projects that unite diverse wills and generate value for the country. The Catalan proposal has a location in the El Molló industrial estate, in Móra la Nova, with land, energy planning, and a strategy designed for the Terres de l'Ebre to be protagonists of the new digital economy and territorial balance. And it incorporates a public-private collaboration capable of combining investment, knowledge, and execution capacity.
From the Government, we see this candidacy as a winning bet. It has European sense, because it reinforces the Union's technological autonomy and adopts its efficiency standards, with maximum energy efficiency and near-zero water consumption. It has institutional solidity, because complicity between administrations builds trust. It has business strength, because it combines investment, knowledge, and execution capacity. And it has territorial roots, because it makes Móra la Nova an active player in the new digital economy, with a project designed to ensure its excellent and environmentally respectful urbanistic and landscape integration.
AI needs a combination that Catalonia can offer. It needs a real economy, because its impact is measured when it reaches businesses, hospitals, mobility, energy, industry, and the Administration. It needs research and top-tier technical capacity, and here the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is a decisive piece, because it connects supercomputing, scientific talent, European projects, and concrete applications.
An AI gigafactory is a strategic infrastructure for the country and for Europe. It must help companies innovate, universities research, administrations provide better services, and territories attract valuable economic activity. And it must reinforce European autonomy and position Catalonia among the spaces that use technology and place it at the service of society.
AI is changing the world, and we must decide from where we want to experience this change. From the stands, watching others build the future, or from within, contributing knowledge, business, territory, and values. This project expresses that Catalonia has already decided to participate in the future of AI with ambition and responsibility, because this future is not only played out by having the best technology, but also by the idea of progress we want to defend. That is why we make our own the reflections of Pope Leo XIV in the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas to ensure that technology is deployed in the service of human dignity, the common good, and shared prosperity.
With this candidacy, Catalonia affirms a clear direction: to look at Europe with ambition, to cooperate with Spain by being demanding and contributing our singularity and own voice, making talent, business, and territory advance together. Móra la Nova can be the Catalan gateway to the future of AI. Catalonia can lead the future if our aspirations are high, we work in collaboration, and we do so on concrete projects.
