summit

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has organised a meeting with the parties supporting the 9^th of November's consultation vote on independence in order to agree the next steps to be followed after the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. They have agreed to keep the 9^th of November's call but, at the close of this edition on Friday evening, they had debating during the whole day on how to guarantee a legal and democratic vote. The meeting was supposed to end at lunchtime, but it has carried on until the evening and participants do not rule out the possibility of continuing discussions over the weekend. A wide range of political parties, representing 65% of the Catalan Parliament (ranging from the Christian-Democrats to the Alternative Left), have to decide whether the 9^th of November's call will be kept until the end or if they will call for early elections within a few days, with or without the possibility of forming a national unity government.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, stated on Wednesday that he "will not join absurd debates" and will not "participate in the game" to negotiate Catalonia's self-determination vote since "the referendum is illegal and will not take place". Ironically, Rajoy accepted the request of the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, to meet, but he has specifically rejected to talk about the purpose of the interview: the self-determination vote. In addition, the Spanish PM has downplayed the agreement backed by a two-third majority of the Catalan Parliament, which was answering a mandate resulting from the 2012 Catalan elections. On the same day the Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, rejected "reinventing Spain" to better fit Catalans and therefore ruled out a deep Constitutional Reform. In addition, he also rejected setting up a new fiscal scheme for Catalonia, similar to the one that the Basque Country already has.

The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, announced on Friday that the publication of the so-called fiscal balances will be delayed until June, after he had promised to issue them by last December and by the current month of March. Montoro changed the calculation method in January, as the figures were used to support Catalonia's independence from Spain. Now, the new delay is "to improve" the report. This document shows how much money Catalan citizens and companies pay to the public authorities and how much returns to them through services, infrastructure and funds. A wide majority of the Catalan society has been complaining for decades that their contribution to finance services, infrastructure and funds in other parts of Spain is too excessive and they have asked for reducing such inter-territorial money transfers. Studies show that Catalans have been paying each year an average of 8% of Catalonia's GDP between 1986 and 2010, which represents 200% of Catalonia's total GDP.

The Government of Extremadura, a region bordering Portugal, presented a study comparing its contributions to the rest of Spain with those of the other Autonomous Communities, particularly focusing on Catalonia. The main thrust of the report was that Catalonia receives the highest amount of money from the Spanish Government, which goes against absolutely all the previous studies that have established that Catalan taxes fund services, investments and infrastructure in the rest of Spain. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, characterised “the political document” presented by Extremadura’s Government as a “complete nonsense”. Mas-Colell, who was Professor of Economics at Berkley and Harvard from 1972 to 1995, said that the report lacked rigour and was not a technical work. The next day Extremadura’s President, José Antonio Monago, stated that Catalonia is “a privileged territory” and questioned whether it could repay its debt.

The Catalan Minister for the Presidency and Spokesperson for the Executive, Francesc Homs, warned that “if a political solution cannot be reached” to keep Catalonia within the EU if it becomes independent from Spain, it would be “the end of Europe as a model for democratic and peaceful integration of the different peoples that form it”. On Monday, in a debate on ‘Catalonia’s political process’ held at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Law, Homs highlighted the fact that if EU Treaties had been interpreted “literally”, the financial bailouts for Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece would not have been possible. However, in this case, the EU reacted “with common sense” and for “the general interest”. Therefore, “since the EU is a project of peace and democracy, a political solution [for Catalonia] will be found, as the EU has ever done in all situations”, he stated.

The new Tax Administration of Catalonia (called ‘Tributs de Catalunya’) has been launched on Thursday in a ceremony chaired by Artur Mas, the President of the Catalan Government. Mas highlighted that “all of this is not against the Spanish State” but “an investment for a better Catalonia”. The new body was created from merging the existing Catalan Government’s Tax Agency and the ones of the four Provincial Councils (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona). Its creation was already foreseen in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish Parliament and the Catalan people through a binding referendum in 2006. It will start with 53 branches, which will mostly deal with municipal taxes. Gradually it will dispose of up to 200 offices dedicated to ensure Catalonia’s fiscal sufficiency. The project was launched in September 2012, aiming to build “a state structure” that would ultimately be able to collect all the taxes generated in Catalonia if needed.

Spain’s confederation of employer associations, CEOE, and its Catalan member, Foment del Treball – the largest business organisation in Catalonia, have rejected getting involved in the self-determination process. On Friday, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, asked employers to get involved in all of Catalonia’s three main objectives: fostering the economic recovery, maintaining social cohesion and enabling Catalonia’s self-determination. On Monday, Madrid-based CEOE and Barcelona-based Foment, representing the business establishment at Spanish and Catalan level, answered Mas: they rejected “getting involved” although on previous occasions they have lobbied against independence and against self-determination. They asked for “dialogue” between Spanish and Catalan authorities. Additionally, Foment asked for a “fiscal agreement” for Catalonia.

The Catalan Centre for Polling (CEO), linked to the Catalan Government, published “an experimental poll” based on 1,830 interviews on 10 different future scenarios, such as an independent Catalonia within the European Union, an independent Catalonia being expelled from the EU and independence bringing a positive economic impact. In the event that the Spanish Government insists in not changing anything regarding the current relationship between Catalonia and Spain, 62.7% of Catalans would vote “yes” in an independence referendum while 22.5% would oppose it and 7.8% would abstain. It is the highest-ever support to independence registered in an opinion poll. On the other hand, if the EU automatically expelled Catalonia if its citizens were to vote for independence, 45.4% would still vote “yes”, 37.6% would vote “no” and 12.7% would abstain. For all scenarios independence is the clear winner.

The Catalan business community is deeply annoyed with the Spanish Government for not publishing transparent data on Catalonia’s fiscal contribution to the rest of Spain and therefore not recognising the fiscal deficit. The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, was supposed to issue the so-called fiscal balances last December but their publication was inexplicably delayed. Last Friday, in late January, Montoro announced the fiscal balances would no longer be calculated and published in the present form; instead, he would publish in March the “regionalised public figures” stating the costs of public services per citizen because the fiscal balances were “incomplete and incoherent”. However, on Tuesday, the Minister recognised that they were “correct” but “wrongly used” to support Catalan independence claims.

However, the participating political parties could not agree on a plan to organise a self-determination vote: some would like to combine the organisation of the vote with the creation of state structures while others ask for neutrality and refuse to identify self-determination as a solution to Catalonia’s economic crisis. The President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas, called for a summit to discuss ways to obtain the right to self-determination and be able to organise a referendum on this issue. All the parties supporting self-determination, including the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), participated in the meeting, as well as the Catalan Government, the four Provincial Councils and representatives from town halls.

The President of the Catalan Government has organised a summit with all the parties at the Catalan Parliament to discuss a new fiscal scheme for Catalonia. According to official studies, Catalonia gives 8.5% of its GDP each year to pay for investments and services in the rest of Spain, an amount that represents more than €17 billion per year. Some parties state that the current model is unsustainable for Catalonia and represents a plundering of its finances. Others have a more moderate opinion. Nonetheless, all political parties in Catalonia now believe that this amount is excessive and that the fiscal scheme between Catalonia and the rest of Spain should be reviewed. However, they significantly disagree on the formula and the timing.

The Spanish Government has taken this measure for the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council that will be held in Barcelona from May 2nd to 4th. The cancellation of the Schengen Protocol comes after a request by the Catalan Minister for Home Affairs to prevent the arrival of violent protesters and guarantee security during the meeting. This precautionary measure will come into effect from April 28th to May 4th, both included. It will be combined with 6,500 police deployed on the streets of the capital of Catalonia. All these measures will be taken after an evaluation of the risks of trouble during the event.

The Catalan President, Artur Mas, has met with the UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg at a summit of European Liberal leaders. He stressed that Catalonia is doing “its homework” despite the excessive and “continuous fiscal drainage” from the Spanish State, which “is unprecedented in Europe”. “European leaders must understand” Catalonia’s situation, Mas said. “We need to explain ourselves” […] “because otherwise the only image that is received abroad is distorted”. He also explained that Catalonia’s GDP is the size of Portugal’s and Finland’s, and has an export level similar to Denmark. Mas also criticised Rajoy’s recent tax increase.

The Israeli Ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schultz, spoke of Israel?s position on the Union for the Mediterranean in an interview with CNA. He stressed that ?we need the Union for the Mediterranean, but with the negative attitudes from Arab countries, we wi

Delay aims to provide more scope for action on talks between Arabs and Palestinians