disconnection

Since December, firms are forbidden from contacting employees outside working hours, but applying the law is proving to be challenging for employers and unions

Governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, the two pro-independence forces in the Parliament, put in place this Friday the basis for the future Catalan Tax Agency. It will be constituted by three bodies: the Catalan Tax Agency, the Board of Taxes and the Fiscal Council. The latter is one of the main novelties of the document registered by the pro-independence groups. The Fiscal Council, a body which doesn’t exist within the Spanish framework, will include representatives from both the public and private sector and will be responsible for advising the Government. The proposal will have to be put to vote after this summer as one of the three ‘laws of disconnection’ from Spain that both groups plan to approve, according to the pro-independence roadmap.

The first of three laws which will enable Catalonia to start the disconnection process from Spain has been registered this Tuesday. Pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, which represent a majority of 72 pro-independence seats in the Catalan Parliament, registered the law for the creation of the Catalan Agency for Social Protection. Although the law represents a new structure, it is set to manage the current competences that the Catalan executive already has on this matter. Therefore, both parties admitted that the law is still “autonomic”. However, according to ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP Chakir el Homrani “the Agency is necessary to manage the social security scheme, as happens in every country”.

The committee designed to study the constitutive process which has to put in place the basis of a future Catalan Republic has set to work. This Monday, pro-independence cross party ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP Lluís Llach took responsibility at the head of the committee, after his predecessor, Muriel Casals, died from a head injury after suffering an accident in the beginning of February. The pro-independence parties in the Parliament considered it “indispensable” to set up a debate on the future Catalan constitution. “It will never be prohibited”, stated alternative left coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ MP Joan Coscubiela. The committee starts its work amid warnings from the Spanish executive, which ultimately took this committee before the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) to evaluate its legality and potential future suspension.

The Parliament’s Bureau accepted this Tuesday the application handed over by the two main pro-independence forces in the Parliament, cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, which requests the creation of three laws: one on social measures, a second on the Catalan tax office and a third on the legal transition. Representatives from the Parliament’s Bureau assured that starting the processing of the three laws complies with the “formal requirements” established by the Catalan Chamber, although the Parliament’s legal services advised them against doing so. Anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Catalan People’s Party (PPC) have urged the Bureau to reconsider the creation of the framework for the three disconnection laws to be launched, as they consider them not to be a project of consensus.

The current Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, announced that the processing of the three laws which would prepare Catalonia for its disconnection process from Spain may be taken before the court. According to Rajoy, Spain’s legal services will analyse these laws and if evidence that they “could contradict what it is said in the Constitution” is found “the Spanish government will act as is has done up to now”. “The government is temporary, but the State, the Constitution and the laws are still in force” he warned. Rajoy also announced that the executive will approve this Friday a conflict of jurisdiction to be presented to the Spanish Constitutional Court regarding the creation of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs.