The traditional Christmas meetings of Pimec and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, held this Thursday – which have coincided for several years now – have become a battleground for the controversy surrounding the law on chambers of commerce. How He already explained it NOWLast month, the employers' associations Pimec and Foment del Treball, along with the unions CCOO and UGT, sent a letter to parliamentary groups expressing their disagreement with the bill presented in the Parliament of Catalonia. This came as a shock to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Chambers of Commerce of Catalonia, given that the text "had been agreed upon." According to Pimec, the text that has finally entered parliamentary proceedings is not "exactly" the agreed-upon text, and therefore the social partners have submitted a series of amendments. Although the law is now in the hands of politicians and its future course no longer depends on business institutions, the negative sentiment surrounding it is clear. When asked about this discrepancy, the president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, asserted this Thursday during the Christmas breakfast that the text as it currently stands "creates legal uncertainty and an overreach of authority" by the chambers of commerce, "which cannot under any circumstances participate in social dialogue." "The chambers of commerce must act as chambers of commerce, employers' associations as employers' associations, and unions as unions," Cañete stated, adding that "order" is necessary. Thus, the president of Pimec said that they did not oppose the bill's passage at the time, but that the text, after thorough analysis, includes elements that "concern" them. "It's like the Hundred Years' War," Cañete joked. "We've been debating this text for years." "We are not against the legislative process itself, we are against the ambiguities that could create uncertainty," he said, while also asserting that "it is a matter of democracy" and that they hope the political parties will take their amendments into account.

It seemed that 2025 would be the year the Catalan Chambers of Commerce Law, a text that has been expired for over 10 years and regulates the function of the 13 Catalan chambers of commerce and part of their funding, would finally be renewed. In July, it was achieved to bring a bill to ParliamentThe proposal, agreed upon by the Catalan Chambers of Commerce, the employers' associations Pimec and Foment de Treball, and the trade unions CCOO and UGT, was presented to the Catalan Parliament in November for a full debate without any amendments. However, a few days later, the employers' associations and the unions sent a joint letter to the leaders of the parliamentary groups expressing "concern about fundamental issues affecting the institutional balance of social dialogue and its preservation as an essential public good for the country's economic and social progress, and about the impact on certain activities resulting from the proposed law on the third sector and the law on Chambers of Commerce." This last-minute setback has come as a major blow to the chambers. According to sources consulted by ARA, and despite the prior consensus on the text, the battle has once again centered on representativeness: economic and social stakeholders are demanding the removal from most articles of the law of the sections that would allow for representation by the Chamber, insisting on the expression "of an advisory nature," thus eliminating any option for representation or participation. According to the president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Chambers, Josep Santacreu, "the processing of the law is not halted, but [this obstacle] may cause a slight delay" in its approval. "We are very negatively surprised by the lack of transparency, but we remain calm. The proposed amendments do not respect the 2014 Basic Law of Chambers of Commerce, nor the 2002 Catalan Law, nor the reality of chambers of commerce in Spain or Europe," Santacreu counters. "What we will not allow is for them to prevent us from doing what the Spanish Chambers of Commerce law permits," he asserts.

The long-awaited Chambers of Commerce Act is beginning to move forward. More than ten years later, the proposed Chambers of Commerce Act, agreed upon by the 13 Catalan Chambers of Commerce, was submitted this Thursday to the Parliament of Catalonia to the main parliamentary groups that will support the approval of the text. Thus, the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), ERC (Electrical and Regional Government), Junts (Junts), and the PP (People's Party) have registered the Act, which now enters parliamentary procedure and is expected to be approved by the end of 2025 or early 2026.