Catalan president meets Spanish PM in Madrid to reactivate joint committees

Socialist Salvador Illa, the first pro-Spain Catalan president in over a decade, meets with Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez on Friday morning in La Moncloa, Spain's government headquarters in Madrid.

The meeting is part of a round of gatherings organized by Sánchez with all regional presidents in Spain and happens after Illa's first institutional overseas trip to Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.

Illa and Sánchez will agree on re-activating four committees between the Catalan and Spanish governments during the first quarter of 2025. These groups have been suspended for some months. The joint group debating financial and fiscal aspects met in July 2024. Still, the executive committee last met in February 2022, similar to the talks on infrastructure also in 2022, but it has been over 14 years since the last meeting on transparency between both cabinets.

During these meetings between Sánchez and many regional presidents, some politicians raised concerns about Catalonia's new financial model, which plans to give greater fiscal autonomy to the territory.

This deal on a new model is part of an agreement between pro-independence Esquerra Republicana and the Socialists group to name Salvador Illa the Catalan president. 

Illa already addressed the main topics of discussion in his trip to Brussels, saying that "Sánchez and I will speak on what we have been working on during the last days. We have already set some initiatives," he told journalists after announcing the plans to speak on the housing crisis.

While speaking at the Catalan parliament general policy debate in October, Salvador Illa announced his cabinet plan to build 50,000 social housing units by 2030.  

Regarding the financial model, "everything is already agreed on, and it is public," so Illa does not believe "there is room for discussion," he said during a visit to the EU Parliament.

Both cabinets, led by Socialist politicians, have already said that the proposal will go ahead, so no surprises are expected to come out of Friday's meeting.

Everything points out that both leaders will take advantage of the gathering to strengthen their relationship. Illa was Sánchez's health minister between 2020 and 2021, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since taking office in August, Illa has always pushed to improve relationships with all Spanish and institutional administrations after years of pro-independence governments. He wants better coordination and cooperation between the Catalan and Spanish executives.