A bilateral commission will analyze the causes of the low investment of the State in Catalonia

The Generalitat and the Government will jointly analyze in a bilateral commission the reasons for the low budget execution of the State in Catalonia after an impromptu meeting between the Minister of Transport and former Mayor of Gavà, Raquel Sánchez, with President Pere Aragonès and Vice President Jordi Puigneró,.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 June 2022 Wednesday 21:43
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A bilateral commission will analyze the causes of the low investment of the State in Catalonia

The Generalitat and the Government will jointly analyze in a bilateral commission the reasons for the low budget execution of the State in Catalonia after an impromptu meeting between the Minister of Transport and former Mayor of Gavà, Raquel Sánchez, with President Pere Aragonès and Vice President Jordi Puigneró,

Sánchez was not able to temper the spirits in the umpteenth disagreement between the central and regional executives. The meeting, which lasted about 20 minutes, took place just after Puigneró described the Government as “useless or liars”, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio.

Aragonès asked Minister Sánchez for explanations about the situation and demanded compliance with the agreed investment. The minister highlighted the importance of reinforcing collaboration between the two administrations to boost the pace of execution of infrastructures in Catalonia.

The meeting was improvised at the request of Aragonès when he coincided with Sánchez at the inauguration of the new Google offices in Barcelona. After greeting the minister, he requested the meeting, which was held in a room in the building. It so happens that the budgets that have been breached by the State were negotiated and approved, among other parties, by ERC.

In order to compensate for the low investment of last year, the central government should execute this year around 160% of the investment planned for this year. In 2021, some 1,300 million were not invested and this year more than 2,200 million have been allocated, so some 3,500 million should be executed. It is an impossible task, given that the historical average execution is less than 60% and the year that Catalonia received the most investment was less than one billion.

Sources from the Government of Pedro Sánchez point out that the reversal of the AP-7 highway will imply an increase in the item that is accounted for as investment, just as happened last year with the radials near the capital, which recorded 191 million in Madrid. They are investments that are not real beyond maintenance costs, because the infrastructure already exists.

Yesterday, the Generalitat sent two letters to the Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, and to the Government delegate in Catalonia, Maria Eugènia Gay, signed by the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà. In the letter to Rodríguez, the Minister makes him a participant in the "deep discomfort and absolute rejection of a comparative grievance that is perpetuated over time." Vilagrà adds that the "grievance, far from being resolved, is getting worse, consolidating a policy of privileged and disadvantaged, of first-class territories and second-class territories." And she cites the negative effect it has on "the situation that Cercanías de Catalunya is going through, which suffers daily delays and breakdowns, affecting hundreds of thousands of citizens."

The central Administration executed last year in Catalonia 35.8% of the investment foreseen in the budget: 739.8 million out of a total of 2,068 million foreseen. On the other hand, in the Community of Madrid it achieved an execution of 183.9%: 2,086 million.

The Ministry of Transport insisted yesterday that the Government has executed more than 3,700 million in Catalonia since 2018. The truth is that since 2013 all the years the real investment executed has always been higher in Madrid than in Catalonia despite that the budgets for each financial year provided for the opposite. If the period of the last seven years (2015-2021) is taken, Catalonia received real investments worth 5,547 million, while Madrid obtained 8,680 million. They are more than 3,000 million extra.