The other negotiation in the State: sovereignty for Euskadi

MadridPrisons, train timetables, the minimum vital income, or work permits for foreigners are some of the files that Pedro Sánchez has transferred in recent years to the Basque Country. It has been a slow and persistent advance on the path to comply with the Statute of Gernika (1979), the result of PNV demands and a lever to maintain the complicity of the jeltzales.

Some of the agreements still need to be materialized and made effective, but they make it evident how far the Spanish government is capable of going. We review what they include.

One of the major transfers of the last legislature was the management of the three prisons in Euskadi, which was signed in May 2021. It includes, for example, the execution, coordination, and monitoring of the compliance with sentences and allows the Basque government to grant third-degree releases, which have multiplied since then. That agreement also included the competences of road transport, the international bibliographic code ISSN, and the transfer of the Maritime District building, which is in Ondarroa (Bizkaia). In 2020, the Spanish government had transferred the management of the school insurance health benefits.

An important new transfer arrived in March 2022: the minimum vital income. The Basque government can resolve the applications, check the requirements and, especially, pay the benefits. La Moncloa also transferred it to Navarra. Two years later, Pedro Sánchez transferred it to Catalonia after meeting Pere Aragonès. However, unlike the Basque Country, the Generalitat manages it, but the payment is made by the Social Security. The Spanish government opened the door to transferring it to the rest of the autonomies, but there is still no other that manages it. The Valencian Country, Galicia, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, and Castile and León have requested it.

One small step further. In March 2024, the Basque Country gained the powers for the Commuter Rail service and five lines were transferred to it. It assumed functions of regulation, planning, management, and inspection of the services and gained the ability to set the price of fares, schedules, and train frequencies. That agreement also included powers in the homologation of foreign university degrees and in the system for the reception and integration of refugees and asylum seekers.

Since July 2025, the Basque Country also has competences in work permits for foreigners and in meteorology. It was the moment when Moncloa also ceded it the former headquarters of the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) in San Sebastián free of charge.

The penultimate major transfer occurred last January. The transfer of five new competencies was completed. These include the management of unemployment benefits, as well as non-contributory family benefits and the non-contributory allowance for birth and childcare. Also, competencies in maritime rescue – for example, search and rescue in inland and territorial waters –, comprehensive management of school insurance, and the transfer of the National Machinery Verification Centre (CMVM) in Barakaldo (Biscay).

The last meeting between Pedro Sánchez and the lehendakari Imanol Pradales resulted in a "political agreement" for seven new competencies. The most important is the creation of a "bilateral body for collaboration and coordination" so that Euskadi can participate in the management of airports. It is in line with the Catalan Airport Authority that the Government promoted at the beginning of the year.

In addition, the two governments agreed on the transfer of "surveillance, inspection and control" in commercial and recreational fishing, of medical recognition for driving licenses and in road re-education centers, and of subsidies for the contracting of combined agricultural insurance, as well as a "framework for financial cooperation" between the Official Credit Institute (ICO) and the Basque Institute of Finance.