Artur Mas presents the Catalan Government’s objectives for 2011-2014

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan President presented the Government’s road-map for its four year-term. It is a 74-page document with 474 objectives to be reached between 2011 and 2014. The document is split into eight main themes, with economic recovery and Welfare State maintenance as the main objectives. It wants to address three crises, as the document states: the economic crisis, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain, and citizen trust in the democratic institutions. They form a “triple crisis”, creating 10 challenges, according to the Catalan Government, which is run by the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition, Convergència i Unió (CiU). The current Catalan Government, which took office just after Christmas, presented the objectives plan after Tuesday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, the last before the municipal elections’ campaign kicks off. According to the Catalan President Artur Mas, who personally presented the document at a press conference, it is “a road-map” for the next four years. The plan is organised around eight main axes, which are the following: “economy and productive sectors; education; health; social policies and family; security; territorial policy and environmental sustainability; administration; nation, language and culture”. These are further divided into 64 areas, each with their own set of objectives. After four months of continuous debate around budget austerity measures, leading to recent public sector protests, the document aims to give an image of control and resolution of Government’s proposals. Artur Mas stressed that the Government is not making budget cuts “because we like doing it” but because it is “strictly obligatory to stop the expenditure’s lack of control. If it were to continue growing, it would push Catalonia over the edge”. Reducing the deficit is essential, because like all governments, Catalonia needs to borrow money from financial markets, and the markets “have rules we have to follow”, explained Mas.

The 10 main challenges the Catalan Government’s road-map faces are the following:

• the creation of jobs
• improving education and lifetime training
• the Welfare State’s sustainability
• the energy and water supply
• people and goods’ security
• the relationship between Catalonia and Spain
• immigration and its integration
• culture, identity and internationalisation in a globalised context
• public sphere’s transparency and fight against corruption
• the improvement of the administration’s financial situation. Reduction of the deficit.

Among the objectives is getting a new funding scheme for the Catalan Government, a new special economic agreement between Spain and Catalonia through which Catalonia would raise all its taxes and pay a “quota” for the Spanish State’s services in Catalonia and in solidarity with poorer areas in Spain. This agreement would be very similar what the Basque Country and Navarra already have. It is known in Catalan political jargon as “the Fiscal Pact”. It was also the main electoral proposal of CiU at the last Catalan elections, held last November.

An “Omnibus law” to ease administrative processes

Artur Mas also announced that his Government is preparing an “Omnibus law” that will affect many government areas. The law will put a series of measures into place that aim at speeding up and simplifying many administrative procedures. It will also get rid of old rules and legislation, tidying up the administration to make it more business friendly, according to the Catalan President.