Politics

With the measure, Barcelona will no longer host the headquarters of the Spanish Authority regulating the Telecommunications Market (CMT). However, the Catalan capital could still host a delegation of the new body, considering the presence of telecommunications companies in the Catalan capital. The Spanish Government has approved the creation of a single super regulatory body controlling competition throughout Spain, including stock markets and other specific markets such as energy, telecommunications, railways, airports, audiovisual media, and postal services. The new body will directly depend on the Spanish Economy Ministry.

The plan has a €420 million euro budget for 2012 and aims to foster quality education by changing the current system based on subsidising training courses offered by job-placement organisations and municipalities for another model based on framework contracts and grouping the actors involved. The Catalan Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations explained that the new plan would include specific policies aimed at young people, the disadvantaged, as well as for the sectors and territories hardest hit by the economic crisis.

The salary drop is to be added to the 5% cutback in 2010 and the 2011 salary freeze despite the increase in inflation. Trade unions denounced that since May 2010, Catalan public employees have lost 20% of their purchasing power. In addition, trade unions have abandoned negotiations as they say the Catalan Government is imposing the measures. The Vice President, Joana Ortega, stressed that the measure is “temporary”, in principle only for 2012; however she did not discard the idea of repeating it in 2013 if the economic situation requires so. The measure will save €180 million this year, which is part of the €625 million package to be saved that affects public employee labour conditions.

The Spanish Minister for Public Works and Transport, Ana Pastor, announced she would prioritise the Central Railway Corridor, which would link the Gibraltar area with Madrid, Zaragoza, Toulouse and the rest of Europe through the Central Pyrenees. The European Commission announced in October it would not fund the Central Corridor, but those along the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts, where the main industrial centres and ports are located. The Catalan business community and political parties have pushed for the Mediterranean Corridor. Their fear was that the current crisis combined with prioritising the construction of a second corridor might push resources away from the Mediterranean.

As agreed, the PP abstained during the vote on the Catalan Government’s budget for 2012. The final text was approved with the 62 votes from CiU MPs, which controls the Catalan Government, the one vote from an independent MP, and the abstention of the PP. The rest of the parties have voted against it, in a tense plenary that has formalised the distance between the Government and the Left-Wing opposition parties. The details of some of the budget’s measures will have to be approved in one month, because three minority parties have asked for a “constitutionality” check.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), which controls the Catalan Government, and the People’s Party (PP), the third political party in Catalonia’s Parliament, have agreed to reduce some of the fees from the original proposal, reduce the number of public companies, build new schools and community health centres, and allocate more money to municipalities and victims of terrorism. Furthermore, the agreement goes beyond the budget and foresees the development of laws and plans to foster employment, entrepreneurship and a spending limitation. CiU has denied that it has a “stable agreement” with the PP for the entire term. The PP has demonstrated its new central role in Catalan politics. Every opposition party has criticised the agreement.

Fathallah Sijilmassi is the substitute of Youssef Amrani, who quit after less than one year in office to become Morocco’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. Sijilmassi was Director General of the Moroccan Agency for Investments, and previously served as the Moroccan Ambassador to Paris and earlier to the European Communities. The Union for the Mediterranean has its permanent Secretariat based in Barcelona. The UfM brings together the 27 European Union Member States and 16 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

After last week’s minor train accident, the Spanish Minister for Transport, Ana Pastor, wanted to personally check Barcelona Metropolitan Area’s railway infrastructure. Pastor has recognised that the Spanish Government had not invested the required amount in railway infrastructure in Catalonia. She said that €5.748 billion has not been invested. Many Catalan voices have criticised the Spanish Government’s lack of investment in key transport infrastructure for Catalonia’s economy.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition ‘CiU’, which runs the Catalan Government, is close to reaching an agreement with the Conservative People’s Party (PP) on this year’s budget. They have been negotiating over the past number of weeks, but the PP has insisted on modifying two of CiU’s new measures: the tourist tax and the drug prescription fee. They have subsequently agreed to postpone the tourist tax until November 2012 and Barcelona will have a different fee. In addition, they have decided to exclude people with low incomes from paying the drug prescription fee.

The Catalan Government has announced the deficit for last year was 3.29%, short of the 2.66% target set by Barcelona. The Catalan Minister for the Economy, Andreu Mas-Colell, has praised citizens for having tightened their purse strings, and says Catalonia is on track to meet is 1.3% deficit objective in 2012

The Spanish Government has signed 23 bilateral agreements with other countries that fix Madrid Barajas as the only airport in Spain where their flights can operate. This discriminates against Barcelona El Prat Airport by not permitting it to have international and intercontinental connections. The European Parliament has unanimously approved an amendment presented by a Liberal Catalan Nationalist MEP from CiU.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has offered Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy; cooperation regards Spain’s structural reforms, such as the Labour Market reform. Mas has not put prior conditions on the table, but only wants to “be able to talk about a new fiscal agreement between Catalonia and Spain”. He said he understands that this is not an “urgent priority for Rajoy”, but it is a “crucial issue” for Catalonia and “an opportunity” for Spain. Mas stressed that his cooperation would not be indefinite, and would have to be renewed in the future. The Catalan President told FAZ about a possible “federation” or “confederation” between Catalonia and Spain.

Catalonia gives away between 8% and 9% of its GDP every year. The main actors in Catalan civil society got together to formally push for a new fiscal agreement with Spain, through which Catalonia would continue transferring money to poorer Spanish regions, but not at current levels. The meeting brought together the leaders of the main business-owners association and the two main trade unions, as well as intellectuals from Barcelona’s Athenaeum, business people, and politicians from every political party except those classed as Spanish nationalists. The meeting was similar to the one held 113 years ago.

The lack of satisfactory offers has forced the Catalan Government to postpone its plan of selling several buildings off for cheap and losing money. Selling real estate assets is one of the ways the Catalan Government hopes to increase revenue and reduce the public deficit. Since none of the offers reached the minimum expected, the Government has decided to wait and postpone the sale.

At the end of last year there were 775,400 people registered as unemployed in Catalonia. The Catalan labour market lost 126,700 jobs over the year, which represents a 4% drop in the percentage of people in employment. In Spain as a whole, the unemployment rate reached 22.85%, with 5.273 million people unemployed.