Few agreements and lots of criticism is what was expected from the meeting of the Bilateral Infrastructures Committee between the Generalitat and the State held this Friday in Barcelona, and it has delivered. After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting at the Catalan Department of Territory, which neither Spanish nor Catalan ministers attended, the Government has reproached the Spanish executive that "there is no explanation" for the State's investment deficit in Catalonia and demanded a short-term correction. The Spanish government has admitted to the investment deficit and claimed that it is a priority to "reverse the situation", but also claimed that it has sought to create an image of disinvestment "that does not conform to reality".

Before bringing the Catalangate crisis to a close, the Generalitat and the Spanish government have clashed again over another major controversy: the State's investment deficit in Catalonia, which a report by the Ministry of Finance has uncovered. This Wednesday Catalan president Pere Aragonès, the vice-president Jordi Puigneró, and Spanish Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez all met to discuss the matter. Although the meeting was not on their agenda, all three coincided in the presentation of a new Google office in Barcelona.

History repeats itself. Decades go by, governments change, we have moved from disaffection to the Independence bid, and from the Independence bid to repression and supposed dialogue. In practice, however, the result ends up being the same: whatever the promise of budgetary investment, in the end execution of planned investment always falls short in Catalonia. There is no way to get the State to comply. In 2021 it happened again, and by quite a large margin. A responsible state, truly concerned about giving fair treatment to a region that is especially relevant in economic terms and, moreover, with a political situation which could potentially lead to a rupture, should be the most interested in giving Catalonia a fair treatment. Yet this is not the case and, if we look at the data, it does not look as if it is about to change. According to a study by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce in 2020, since 2001 and up to that date the State failed to invest 25% of what it had budgeted for Catalonia. In total, €8bn.

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has revealed the magic figure that every year accompanies the draft general state budget: the investment that will be allocated to Catalonia. By 2021 this investment will represent 17.2% of the Spanish total, which means an increase over the previous year, when this figure was 16.5%. In absolute numbers this is a record investment of €2.23bn. However, 17.2% is above what would correspond to its population (15%) but below the weight of its GDP (19%).

The State invested in Catalonia 957.23 million euros in 2020, according to the report Territorial distribution of state public sector investment, published on Friday by the General State Comptroller, attached to the Ministry of Finance. The figure, which includes only the territorialised investment data, represents 12.7% of the total invested in Spain, which totals 7,557.2 million euros, far from the contribution of Catalonia to the Spanish GDP, which stands at around 19%.