autonomy

The Catalan Government will file several formal demands for payment of the €2.02 billion the Spanish Government legally owes Catalonia from the 2008-2013 period. The money represents 1% of Catalonia’s GDP or 7% of the Catalan Government’s budget. According to the Statute of Autonomy, which was approved by the Spanish Parliament and came into force in 2006, the Spanish Government was obliged to invest a percentage equal to or higher than Catalonia’s share of Spain’s GDP between 2007 and 2013 in order to compensate for an historical lack of infrastructure investment. If it was not doing so, the Spanish Executive had to compensate Catalonia financially. The measure was adopted after exhaustive negotiations and was essential to the approval of this law by the Catalan people through a binding referendum. However, the Spanish Government never honoured it. Madrid compensated Catalonia for the lack of investment in 2007, but not for the remaining years.

One of the six ‘fathers’ of the Spanish Constitution, Miquel Roca, who currently leads one of the largest law firms in Spain, stated that the Constitution does not ban a referendum on Catalonia’s self-determination. “It is a matter of political will”, since Catalonia is recognised “as a nationality” by Spain’s main law, stated the respected lawyer, who also used to be a leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). In front of a committee of the Catalan Parliament, Roca remarked that it would be “absurd” to call for a referendum at Spanish level, as it would only be binding in Catalonia. In the rest of Spain it would not be binding, emphasised Roca, as “it is said in Article 92”. This article reads that non-binding referendums can be called regarding issues of extreme importance.

The Catalan Government has published a report listing all the Spanish Executive’s disloyalties towards Catalonia including not respecting legislation, devolved powers and cultural aspects. The 50-page document has a chapter quantifying the costs of such disloyalty, which totals €9.375 billion, according to the Catalan Government. €5.748 billion correspond to infrastructure which has not been built; €672 million to a reduction in institutional transfers; €1.715 billion to spending increases due to the Spanish Government’s unilateral decisions; and €1.239 to revenue reductions due to similar unilateral decisions which have never been compensated. The report does not take into account the so-called fiscal deficit – the €16.5 billion that each year Catalan tax-payers transfer to the rest of Spain. The Catalan Government emphasised that there has been “a permanent disloyal activity” since 2000.

The Catalan Government has reminded it has the exclusive powers to rule local governments in Catalonia, an authority which stems from the Catalan Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish Parliament and a binding referendum. Therefore, it does not recognise the Spanish Government’s law proposal on local governments, approved last week in Madrid, and will reject any imposition. The new Catalan law foresees the volunteer merging of municipalities and elimination of 1,034 remunerated positions in the County Councils. It also reshapes the body managing services within the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. Furthermore, it strengthens the control on the creation of new local bodies and the public services offered by municipalities.

The new President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, has turned out to be a member of the People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government. In addition, the expert in labour law had drafted several reports for the PP on several issues. On top of this, Pérez de los Cobos wrote a book with many sentences against Catalonia and Catalan citizens, amongst other controversial stances. According to the Catalan Government, this person cannot chair an institution that has to act as a referee between the different levels of government in Spain and that has to interpret the Constitution regarding very sensitive issues, such as Catalonia’s self-determination. For this reason, the Catalan Government demanded that Pérez de los Cobos be excluded from all the cases that involve the Catalan Executive.

The Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó, accused the Spanish Government of trying “to manipulate” data in its report last week, in order to push forward a recentralisation reform, which “goes against the self-government principle”. Ribó explained that the Spanish Ombudsman undertook 33,849 actions in 2012, which means each action cost an average of €428. In addition, it refused to accept 20,164 complaints. Meanwhile, the Catalan Ombudsman undertook 25,073 actions, with a cost of €279 each. The Catalan institution only rejected 267 complaints. Regarding resolutions and recommendations, the Spanish Ombudsman issued 548 while the Catalan body issued 3,635. This means that each resolution by the Spanish body cost €26,447 while the Catalan’s cost €1,925, which is 13.75 times less.

According to the current legislation, the Spanish Government has to invest 18.9% of its total transport infrastructure budget in Catalonia between 2007 and 2013 in order to compensate for an historical lack of such investments. However, according to the Spanish Transport Ministry’s budget execution reports and the projections made by the Chamber, the Spanish Government is far from honouring this legal obligation. Not only have investments in Catalonia not increased in relative terms, but they have been reduced to a “historical minimum”. While the planned budget for transport investments has been reduced by an average of 36% throughout Spain due to the economic crisis, in Catalonia it has dropped by 50%. Furthermore, 87% of the planned budget was executed throughout Spain, while in Catalonia Madrid only executed 68% of it.

Catalan nationalism has changed over the years. Most Catalan nationalists have now concluded that Spain will never accept a plurinational state, will not fully respect Catalan language and culture, will continue threatening Catalonia’s self-government, and will not accept a reduction in Catalonia’s fiscal contribution to the rest of Spain, which annually represents between 6.4% and 8.7% of the Catalan GDP. Catalan nationalists are now tired of negotiating these issues and have come to the conclusion that Spain will never accept a comfortable place for Catalonia within the Spanish state. Now, 51% of Catalans citizens would vote for the independence in a hypothetical referendum.

Artur Mas, the President of the Catalan Government, met with the “State Minister” of the Moroccan Government, Mohamed El-Yazghi, who acts as a deputy prime minister. Mas recommended that Morocco build a pseudo-federal model, as was done in Spain, giving the Western Sahara some degree of autonomy.

Trains with origins and destinations in Catalonia will be managed by the Catalan Government beginning in 2011. Medium-speed trains (called Avant) are not included. A commission will quantify the cost of the service. The agreement follows what has already been agreed on in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, approved in 2006.

A renewal was urgent after the legitimacy crisis that occurred during the debate over the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Some political forces, especially in Catalonia, were expecting a broader reform that would limit the Court’s power to decide on already approved laws via referendum.

Aragon, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community each presented a different appeal before the Court against some articles and dispositions of Catalonia’s main law, the Statute of Autonomy, which was approved in 2006 by a referendum. The magistrates have completely rejected Aragon and the Balearic Islands’ appeals and have “not admitted” the appeal from the Valencian Community.

Catalan President José Montilla and Spanish minister Manuel Chaves meet to demonstrate their will to cooperate in the development of the original Statute

After the controversial Constitutional Court?s sentence on Catalonia?s autonomy, the Catalan President met the Spanish PM to discuss the resulting scenario. Yesterday, the Catalan parties in the Spanish Parliament failed to pass a motion on the sentence

The meeting will be held next week. Both politicians will discuss the recent sentence of the Spanish Constitutional Court, which has trimmed the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Saturday?s demonstration will be on the table.