ERC agrees with the Catalan government to create 200 new positions for the Catalan Tax Agency.
The agreement is part of the third credit supplement that the Government will approve this Thursday.
BarcelonaERC reaches an agreement with the Catalan government on a third injection of public funds and saves the Generalitat's liquidity this year. This morning, the Republicans announced a new agreement with Salvador Illa's administration to approve the remaining €468 million of the total of almost €4 billion planned by the government for the entire credit supplement. Parliament has already approved the first two packages: €2.168 billion and €1.301 billion. What have the Republicans agreed to in return? The creation of 200 new positions for the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) to scale it and enable it to collect personal income tax next year, as well as the selection of a new physical headquarters for the agency this year. The agreement also stipulates that the new commuter rail operator will be established by June 30th and that a building will be sought for the company's location throughout 2025. The Commons, the other partner the government needs to approve this third package, continues negotiating with the executive and its spokesperson, David Cid, has said that his party prioritizes resources for school reinforcement and lunch grants, in statements to the ACN.
What the Republicans have agreed are, basically, steps to materialize two of the major agreements that the Republicans had agreed with the Socialists for the investitures of Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa: a new financing model for Catalonia and the transfer of Cercanías. A few months ago the government already announced a first step to expand the structure of the ATC with the creation of 90 structural positions –and 102 temporary ones for the 2025 income tax campaign–. Now, before June 30th, 200 new positions should be created, 40 of which were already part of the package of 90 announced a few weeks ago by the Government, as explained by the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, in a press conference. The objective is for the Agency to be prepared to collect personal income tax, one of the first challenges the agency will face in order to begin implementing the new financing.
In this sense, the agreement also establishes that before July 31st, the Government will have drafted a "master plan for the progressive implementation of personal income tax in the ATC." Republicans and Socialists once again put in writing that all the details for specifying the new financing must be provided before June 30th, a commitment that was already established in the agreement to inaugurate Salvador Illa.
On the other hand, the Catalan government and Esquerra have also agreed that the new commuter rail operator will be established by June 30th. However, one of the main steps to preparing this company, the bylaws, should have been made public in March. Two months later, ERC spokesperson Isaac Albert assures that these bylaws have been drafted, but that the Socialists and Republicans are still exchanging texts to finalize all the details. One of the agreements that should be reflected in some way in the constitution of this company is the transitional period of two years during which the company will continue to belong to Renfe as a subsidiary. After these two years, ownership would belong to the Generalitat.
In addition to developing these two investiture agreements, the pact also includes more money to finance free I2 courses in daycare centers. The Republicans already agreed with the Catalan government to maintain the free provision promoted by Pere Aragonès's government and are now putting in writing an increase in the amount allocated by the Generalitat from €1,600 to €1,800 per place. Regarding housing, the Republicans have also agreed to allocate €200 million for building renovations between 2026 and 2028, a measure that could be included in the Barris Plan announced by Salvador Illa on Monday.
The other investiture agreements
The pact again incorporates points that were already part of the investiture agreement between both Isla and Sánchez but are still pending. In this regard, they reiterate the commitment to make the amnesty law "effective," despite it being in the hands of the courts, and also the National Pact for Language, signed a few days ago. On this point, ERC asserts that it has agreed to add an additional 15 million to the 255 million budgeted and has also included a political commitment: to defend Catalan as the "vehicular language in the education system."
One of the points included in Salvador Illa's investiture agreement was also the creation of a consortium to oversee the execution of state investments. At this time, this issue has not materialized, although it was addressed in the last bilateral commission. A working group was agreed to be operational before the end of the year.Given the slowness of the measure's implementation, the Republicans have agreed with the government to create an "observatory of state investments in Catalonia" that would include social and economic stakeholders in Catalonia, the four political parties with the greatest institutional representation, and also the four provincial councils whose conversion is pending. Now, the Republicans have set a date for the Bank of Spain to apply for a banking license before July 31. No steps have been taken to promote Catalan sports teams either, and now the agreement establishes that the office that the government was supposed to create will be created before the end of this year, in order to "strengthen" the network of delegations abroad, which has yet to be specified.
