The arrival of the Climate Change Law to the Valencian Parliament threatens to torpedo the strategy of the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, to support the ceramics sector. The Valencian president has been supporting the sector for several weeks - he went to Brussels, demanded measures from the Spanish government and even proposed the joint purchase of gas to lower the cost of energy - in the face of the difficulties that ceramics is going through due to its dependence on the gas.
Last week, the Ascer tile employers carried out a worrying analysis of the situation and warned that more than 400 jobs have already been destroyed and there are more than 7,000 employees in ERTE with not very promising prospects.
In this context, on Wednesday the debate on the entirety of the Climate Change regulations came to Les Corts, which provides, among other measures, for creating a Tax on the emission of greenhouse gases. A legislative proposal that, despite coming from the Valencian Government itself, the PSPV amended alone to try to reduce its fiscal impact given the current situation.
As explained by La Vanguardia, the socialists demanded to change article 114 of the bill so that those emissions that are made from facilities that emit less than 25,000 tons of CO2 per year would be exempt from the aforementioned tax.
A proposal that the PSPV partners yesterday considered unacceptable because they understand that it would de facto prevent the tax from being applied to any company. Unides Podem deputy Ferran Martínez recalled that the regulatory proposal already takes into account "the current problem" in the sense that a moratorium is established so that the tax cannot be introduced until 2025.
However, the socialist trustee, Ana Barceló, made it clear that this moratorium is insufficient, since "the adaptation of the sector will not be done in a few years" and asked her partners to make a reading of the current moment. "Ceramics have to come out of this tax," she pointed out.
For her part, the spokeswoman for Compromís, Papi Robles, expressed her hope that the PSPV is "faithful" and "consistent" with what was agreed by the Valencian Government. Likewise, she added that the tax on greenhouse gas emissions would only affect 47 companies -the most polluting- with a minimal impact, given that the expected global collection would not reach half a million euros. Robles showed her rejection of the socialist amendment to exempt installations of less than 25,000 tons from the tax.
From the sector it is defended that they have been trying to reduce their emissions for years. In fact, they explain that CO2 emissions per square meter produced have decreased by 52.%% since 1985. On the contrary, they add, the total payment of CO2 emission rights by companies in the sector has practically quadrupled since 2017.
And it is that it does not seem that Unides Podem or Compromís are going to accept the alternative proposed by the PSPV which, without a doubt, would break the Valencian president's strategy of turning to the tile sector.
In the middle of this situation, the PP returned yesterday to obviously offer itself to the PSPV to carry out some of its proposals. "We are going to negotiate," reiterated the spokeswoman for the popular parliamentary group, María José Català.
A negotiation that has to take place in the coming weeks as the amendment to the totality that was debated yesterday will be rejected by the Botànic in today's vote, opening the term for the parliamentary process of the legislative text. The idea is that the rule can be approved before the end of the year.
Tourist tax
Also yesterday, the amendment to the entire law that will create the Valencian Tax on Tourist Stays, the so-called tourist tax, was debated in Les Corts. The Botànic made clear its intention to knock down the proposal and thus begin its debate to approve the tax in Parliament. However, the focus of the debate shifted to the proposal of the socialist deputy mayor of Valencia, Sandra Gómez, to tax stays in tourist apartments at 6 euros.
The rejection of the measure was total and even the PSPV disassociated itself from it, admitting that it is a proposal from a municipal group of a specific city council that "does not fit" in the text agreed by the Botànic. As Unides Podem recalled, the maximum ceiling planned per stay was 2 euros, so the purples did not see much sense in paying more to stay in a tourist apartment than in a five-star hotel. For its part, Compromís was willing to negotiate an extension with its partners so that the municipalities have more margin when it comes to raising the rate.
