catalan way

The Catalan Ministry for Economy and Tax Office presented this Wednesday the data of the macroeconomic chart to be included in the budget for 2017, which the Catalan executive expects to pass next week.  According to this document, the Catalan economy’s expected growth will be 3.4%, 0.5% more than the growth forecast for the Spanish economy, which is expected to be 2.9%. Regarding 2017, the chart keeps the figure released last May which foresaw 2.7% growth. According to the Catalan Vice-president and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, this figure is “considerably higher” than the expected growth for the Eurozone (1.5%). The budget for 2017 also foresees the creation of 160,000 jobs between 2016 and 2017. 

Catalonia and Japan have renewed their business, cultural, touristic and research ties for the next three years, through the so-called ‘Japan Plan 2016-2019’. The Government presented the agreement, approved last 25^th of October, on Monday and explained that it aims at boosting business promotion, investment attraction, tourism cooperation, student mobility and cultural and gastronomic exchange. While the presentation of the Plan was taking place on Monday morning in Barcelona, a mission organised by the Port of Barcelona and Acció, the Catalan Public competitiveness and internationalisation agency, was in Panama trying to improve the trade relationship with the Central America region. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, accompanied fifty Catalan companies on their visit to Panama and Cuba, where they held 300 meetings with local businesses.  

The new delegate of the Spanish executive in Catalonia, former MP Enric Millo, took office this Monday. The representative from the Catalan branch of the conservative People’s Party (PPC) assured that he is “willing to dialogue” and emphasised his predisposition to “reduce the distances” between the Spanish and Catalan institutions. He also insisted on the need to respect the Spanish Constitution, adding that it can be “modernised” but “through dialogue and consensus rather than through imposition”. The Catalan Government’s spokeswoman, Neus Munté, described Millo as a person “who is well aware of the Catalan reality” and admitted that “it wouldn’t be difficult” to find changes compared to Millo’s predecessor, María de los Llanos de Luna, regarding the predisposition to dialogue.

The Catalan Government paid tribute last Sunday to the 309 victims and their families that have been recognised as victims of Franco’s regime since 2009, the last time such a ceremony took place. During the event, which took place in Universitat de Barcelona’s auditorium, the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva compared “with due respect to the obvious differences” the justice of Franco’s dictatorship and that of the current Spanish State. “Today there are still echoes of the Francoist melody” he said, referring to the “interference of the Spanish Government in the judicial system”. Moreover, Romeva stated that despite having overcome the Francoist dictatorship, which reigned in Spain from 1939 until the dictator’s death in 1975, it still has to be proved whether Spain’s democracy “is worthy of the name”.

Exports from companies based in Catalonia reached €48.58 billion during the first 9 months of 2016, a 2.1% increase compared to the same period last year. According to the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness, this figure sets a new historic high for Catalonia’s export sector, which has been growing strongly over the last few years. Moreover, in September Catalan exports were worth €5.7 billion, which is the highest figure for this month since the beginning of the historic series, in 2000. The sectors that contributed the most to the positive export figures were the chemical sector, which concentrated 60.8% of total exports, followed by equipment goods and the automotive sector. On the other hand, Catalonia’s trade deficit between January and September rose by 0.5% in comparison to the same period in 2015 and totalled €9.2 billion. 

“For the last few years, especially since Catalonia passed the new Statute of Autonomy in 2010, Spain has neglected its duties towards Catalonia”, stated on Thursday Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont. In front of an auditorium full of businessmen and with Spain’s King, Philip VI and Spanish Vice President and Minister for Territorial Administrations, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, also present, Puigdemont emphasised Catalonia’s leading role in terms of business and praised its economic strength. During the ‘Ferrer Salat’ awards, given by Catalonia’s largest employers’ associations in recognition of the most outstanding businesses, Puigdemont lamented the Spanish Government’s attitude and accused it of refusing to listen to the citizens’ demands, which is an “indispensable condition” for having “the productive dialogue we all hope for” and which is the legal basis of a democracy. 

According to a study released this Thursday by the Catalan Ministry for Economy and Tax Office, the “autonomic framework” does not leave “enough room” to cope with poverty and inequality in Catalonia. ‘Economy note 103: Analysis and tools to tackle poverty and inequality’, a report that includes 19 extensive articles from around 30 experts, technicians and academics, stresses that the scope of the Catalan Government’s public policies is limited by “the restrictions on powers and availability of income of the current autonomic framework”. In the same vein, Catalan Vice President and Catalan Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, said that this situation has forced him to prepare a budget for next year “that is neither the one Catalans deserve nor what they need” because it does not correspond to the “economic and fiscal effort” made by the citizens.

Many representatives from the Catalan Government attended on Sunday the demonstration in Barcelona to defend the Catalan institutions from Spain’s legal attacks. “The rally empowers the institutions to continue the process towards independence”, Catalan Government Spokeswoman Neus Munté stated. The politician referred to the demonstration as “the best contrast between the decay of a political system, the Spanish one, which persecutes democracy, and one nation and the Catalan institutions that stand up for it and which will continue to do so”. “Any true democrat should feel challenged by what is happening”, she added. Several Catalan Government representatives are facing court cases sought by the Spanish Government for having staged the 9-N vote in 2014.  Those politicians summonsed include Catalonia's former President, Artur Mas, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and former Catalan Ministers, Joana Ortega, Francesc Homs and Irene Rigau. All of them attended the protest. 

About 80,000 people gathered together on Sunday to demonstrate against Spain’s use of the courts to stop Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations and the summonsing of several elected representatives. The rally, organised by civil society associations Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural and the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) took place on Barcelona’s Maria Cristina Avenue, which was soon overflowing with people. Under the motto “Let’s support our democratic institutions” demonstrators showed their solidarity with the elected representatives who have been prosecuted by Spain’s justice for complying with the electoral mandate that emerged from the 27-S elections, which led to a majority of 72 pro-independence MPs in the 135-seat Parliament. “Our cause is democracy and we will never let our elected representatives down”, stated Òmnium Cultural’s President, Jordi Cuixart.

The Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, presented this Wednesday the draft of the Law on the Catalan Community Abroad, which is set to be passed in 2017. The Parliament rejected the two amendments of the whole bill submitted by Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ (C's) and the Catalan Conservative People’s Party (PPC) and therefore the law has now started its parliamentary process. The arrival of this bill in the Parliament is a step forward for the recognition of the Catalan community abroad, a historical demand. Romeva explained that its aim is “to recognise the Catalans abroad as subjects with rights and duties and addressees of the work of the Government”. One of the central aspects of the new law is the Register of Catalans living abroad, which Romeva described as “key”. “It should be the tool by which the Government can identify the citizens who live abroad”, he stressed. 

The Catalan executive and radical left pro-independence CUP are negotiating the fiscal law, the so called Accompaniment Law, for the 2017 budget. The draft is set to include tax reforms as well as the introduction of new taxes especially oriented toward avoiding property speculation. One of the main hurdles has to do with the reform of income tax, which foresees the elimination of tax relief for property purchase for those who earn more than 30,000 euros per year. By applying this modification the Government could collect 11 MEUR in 2018, negotiators estimate. CUP also aimed to increase income tax for those who earn more than 60,000, but this proposal is not apparently on the table.

The 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) on climate change is being held in Marrakech, Morocco, since the 7^th of November and will last until the 18^th. Although only UN member states can vote at the meeting, regional and local entities can participate. A Catalan delegation has travelled to the conference in the Moroccan city, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, will do so next weekend. The aim of the mission is to demonstrate Catalonia’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint. “Catalonia wants to lead the fight against climate change, we are doing things reasonably well and we want to be the benchmark in Europe”, Rull stated. Catalonia ratified the Paris agreement last April and the Catalan Parliament currently has as pending the approval of a law to combat global warming. 

In annual terms, the Catalan economy grew by 3.3% in the third quarter of 2016 according to official data released this week by the Catalan Ministry for Economy and Tax Office and the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat). This increase is mainly thanks to the boost provided by the services sector, which saw annual growth of 3%, and the acceleration of the industrial sector, whose growth stood at 4.9%, the highest for the last six years. The quarterly growth rate, however, stood at 0.7%, one tenth lower rise than the previous quarter, but four percentage points above the Eurozone average. According to the data, there is a slight slowdown in the expansion of the Catalan economy, as annual growth in the first and second quarter of this year were 3.7% and 3.5%, respectively.  

The Financial Times report FDi European Cities and Regions of the future 2016/2017, recognised Catalonia as the best Southern European region to invest in for 2016 and 2017. To make the most of this prognosis, the Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, visited London this Monday, in the framework of the 'Brexit' plan, which aims to promote foreign investment in Catalonia and strengthen trade relations with the United Kingdom. At a meeting with thirty businessmen and international investors at the headquarters of the newspaper the Financial Times, Baiget explained that that there is "no anxiety" among investors regarding the political process going on in Catalonia, but rather only "interest". Furthermore, the Catalan Minister stressed that investors really value “Catalonia’s assets”, such as its “good communications and trained and qualified people”. 

The Catalan Government Spokeswoman, Neus Munté, expressed this Friday the Catalan Executive’s disapproval of the arrest of the Mayor of Berga, Montse Venturós, for refusing to take down a pro-independence flag from the town hall building. Munté considered it not only “outrageous” but “an aberration both from a political and democratic perspective”. However, the case showed the different in criteria between the Catalan and Spanish institutions. While Munté lamented Spain’s “prosecution” of elected representatives and the “judicialisation of politics”, the Spanish Executive assessed the arrest as “only normal”. In his first appearance as Spanish Government spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo warned that “whoever fails to adhere to the rules has to accept the consequences”.