Junqueras gives the PSOE more time to comply with the unique financing

Barcelona"With the aim of implementing the new singular financing system for Catalonia, the agreement will have to be formalized during the first half of 2025 in the Bilateral Commission between the government of the Generalitat and that of the State." This is how the investiture pact of Salvador Illa between Esquerra and the PSC embodied the commitment to have completed2 new singular financing system for Catalonia, with the objective that the Catalan Tax Agency would be the one to collect all taxes, starting with the IRPF in 2026. However, on June 28 of this year, the president of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, has admitted that they will not arrive on time in the agreed deadlines and will not meet a date that he himself had set," he acknowledged this Saturday before Esquerra leaders. The Government of the Generalitat announced, in turn, that it plans a meeting of the Bilateral Commission Generalitat-State on July 14 at 12 noon in Barcelona: "Progress is being made," more optimistic sources predict. of the Government, especially in the last week, is in its final weeks. And some agreement is reached regarding the collection of personal income tax, according to the sources consulted, who recall that all financing negotiations have been long and complex. "It may take more days or weeks, but what is certain is that it cannot pretend that the agreement is not what Catalonia needs," he concluded.

"The PSOE is not in the best moment to make brave decisions and the financing model demands courage," Junqueras asserted. parliamentarian who supports the Spanish government, very varied - he admitted - also agrees with the singular financing for Catalonia

The meeting of the Bilateral Commission on July 14 will be after the federal committee of the PSOE that must decide who will permanently replace the now former secretary of organization, Santos Cerdán, and accused of 5 past July 9, when the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, must appear to explain himself on this case in the Congress of Deputies.

Sources consulted by ARA suggest that the idea is to introduce a bill in the Spanish parliament to regulate the new model for Catalonia, in parallel with the pact formalized between the Generalitat and the Spanish state within the framework of the Bilateral Commission. This new legislation remains to be seen whether or not it would modify the Organic Law on the Financing of the Autonomous Communities (LOFCA).

The looming question is whether or not there will be an exit from the common regime of the autonomous communities, as ERC announced when it finalized the investiture pact for Salvador Illa. An issue that the Socialists have never publicly endorsed. The president, in his meetings with other autonomous regions such as the Canary Islands and Navarre, has avoided talking about leaving the common regime and has limited himself to saying that it will be a model specific to Catalonia, which will develop the Statute of Autonomous Communities and will not be a foral regime like that of Navarre and the Basque Country. In any case, Oriol Junqueras has said that as long as the Socialists do not comply with the financing agreement, the PSOE and PSC cannot count on Esquerra to make "major new agreements."

Three-way negotiations

For weeks, Republicans had been admitting that things were not moving at a good pace, on the one hand due to the complexity of the undertaking, but on the other due to the alleged corruption cases surrounding the Spanish government that have erupted, placing the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in a dead end. In fact, Junqueras has said that this context makes compliance with the pact more difficult.

The financing negotiations are currently a three-way street: on the one hand, between the Catalan government—led by the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero—and the Republicans; and on the other, between the ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party) and the Spanish government, led by Vice President María Jesús Montero. The role of the Spanish Treasury Minister is controversial: while the ERC (Republican Socialist Workers' Party) blames her for being more focused on the challenge of next year's Andalusian elections, the Catalan government and the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) see her as focused on financing negotiations. According to the sources consulted, the talks are at an impasse because there is no agreement on the amount of additional money the new system represents for the Generalitat. However, work is being done to "protect the ordinality," meaning that Catalonia will not lose ground in terms of what it represents when it comes to contributing money to the state coffers when the model is settled annually.

A pretext?

Although Junqueras has justified the delay in the financing negotiations by the Spanish government's problems—he has said, among other things, that Sumar "loses representatives every day" and the PSOE "expels" them—before the Cerdán case broke, sources already suggested they would not meet the deadlines for the financing model.

The State and the Generalitat (Catalan regional government) already held a bilateral committee in February, but did not include anything related to financing on the agenda. So far, steps have been taken to increase the size of the Catalan Tax Agency. The Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, announced the creation of 90 permanent positions and a month ago, she agreed with ERC (Regionalist Party) to create an additional 160. The Generalitat (Catalan government) also designed a pilot project to collect vehicle registration tax to prepare the entity for the collection of personal income tax, but agreements with the state are still pending before this can be achieved.