The Basque Country's roadmap: pensions, airports and immigration

VitoriaThe Basque government, after securing the transfer of five powers to the Basque Country at the last minute two weeks ago, is now focusing, once and for all, on completing the implementation of the Statute of Autonomy. According to the Basque Statute, fifteen areas remain to be addressed. Among these, two stand out due to their particular economic and infrastructural importance: the management of pension payments and the transfer of airports.

The payment of contributory pensions would be the final step in the economic management of Social Security, a concept on which the central government has yet to take a position, following the transfer of the management of unemployment benefits and subsidies two weeks ago. This latter matter already faced strong reservations from senior technical experts in Madrid, but not from the political side, as they saw a serious risk of disrupting the unitary model and the single fund of the Social Security system. In fact, the transfer agreement clearly establishes this as the red line. The "technical" aspects of pension payment management will reignite discussions.

During last Tuesday's meeting at Moncloa Palace between Basque Premier Pradales and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish president also committed to transferring the management of Basque airports. As with the previous issue, this too will face serious opposition, motivated, in this case, by the significant presence of private capital in Aena's shareholding. This demand is also under scrutiny from the Catalan government. In both cases, the Spanish government would be better positioned to speak of "co-management" or shared management rather than a complete transfer of management.

Sánchez has also committed to addressing a new demand from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV): that the Ertzaintza (Basque Police) play a greater role in immigration management from a security perspective. According to Pradales, the Ertzaintza could collaborate in deportations, given its firsthand information on criminal activity. This is a power not currently granted in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. The goal is for the Basque Country to be considered, in the short term, as a northern border and transit point for migrants heading to the rest of Europe, with the corresponding contribution of economic resources from the central government; more or less like Ceuta, Melilla, or the Canary Islands in the south.

Update the Basque quota

Following the political agreement on the pending transfers, according to sources within the Basque government, the technical aspects will be addressed. To this end, a Joint Commission on Transfers has been scheduled for the end of March. Similarly, a meeting of the Joint Commission on the Economic Agreement has been scheduled to begin negotiations for updating the five-year law on the Economic Agreement. quota Basque player who is due for 2026. A negotiation, that of the quotawhich, as always, is also expected to be heated, and not only because of the technical difficulty.

Compliance, non-compliance... The development of Basque self-government has always progressed according to the needs of the various Spanish governments, which on many occasions have treated the Statute as a granted charter and not as an organic law, which is what it is. Except for the period of the first transfers to the Basque Country in the early 1980s with Lehendakari Garaikoetxea, when sectoral matters such as Education, Health, Ertzaintza (Basque Police), and Culture were transferred, the modus operandi has been the same: you give me something, I give you something. One win-win between the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the various Spanish governments.

The jeltzales They adopt different personas depending on the outcome of the negotiations. They exploit every situation. Every little helps. They resort to victimhood when deadlines aren't met ("it's Madrid's fault") and puff out their chests when the transfers are signed ("the only valid interlocutor capable of advancing self-government"). The reality is that the Statute of Gernika was approved in a referendum in 1979 and is still not fully implemented. Four and a half decades have passed, of which only three years have been spent on its completion. jeltzales They have been out of Ajuria Enea. Apparently, the PNV also bears some responsibility for this.

EH Bildu has called for a change in strategy: to negotiate as a country and not as a party. In this sense, it has demanded an effective bilateral relationship with the State so that "we don't have to be negotiating the transfers for the next 40 years." Pradales has also demanded this bilateral relationship between the Basque Country and the State, but without abandoning the negotiating tactics that his party has maintained.

History shows that for Basque self-government and the development of its Statute to cease being a bargaining chip, the Spanish government of the day must not, for example, hold all the cards.