Bilateral Spain-Catalonia committee to meet for first time in 3 years

The bilateral Spain-Catalonia committee will meet for the first time in three years on February 24 in Barcelona, one of four joint committees to be reactivated. 

The date was set at a meeting in Madrid on Wednesday morning between Catalonia's Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres. 

The joint committee will address transfers of powers in several areas and lay the foundations for Catalonia's new singular financing system, which will also be discussed at the economic and fiscal affairs committee scheduled for the last week of February.

The transfers committee will meet on February 24 and address the agreements for the transfer of services and resources from Spain to the Catalan government.

A bilateral committee on infrastructure will take place a week earlier, on February 17.

Dalmau and Torres have therefore reactivated all four Spain-Catalonia joint committees, as agreed by Catalan President Salvador Illa and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in November.

First bilateral meeting in three years

The bilateral Catalonia-Spain committee has not met for three years, although it was initially supposed to be held at least twice a year.

At the last meeting in February 2022, Catalonia's pro-independence government criticized the "slow and meagre progress."

With the Socialists now in power in Catalonia as well as Spain, Dalmau stated that the reactivation of the committees highlights the objective of the two governments to open "a new stage of collaboration and cooperation for the benefit of the citizens of Catalonia" in matters related to infrastructure, public services, security and justice, and financing of public services.

Appearing alongside Dalmau, Torres said the Spanish government wants the meetings to provide "the greatest number of transfers [or powers] possible."

The main issue that will be on the table on February 24 is the singular financing model, although the plans to modify the tax system will have to be submitted to the economic and fiscal affairs meeting in the last week of February.