The meeting between Pere Aragonès and Jéssica Albiach has ended without an agreement. ERC does not throw in the towel, but they admit that the Generalitat's 2024 budgets are approaching the precipice. Republicans are not willing to stop the Hard Rock process, as requested by En Comú Podem, due to possible economic consequences. Even so, in a previous meeting between the negotiating teams, the Catalan Executive today made a final offer on a strictly budgetary level to try to convince the parliamentary group led by Jéssica Albiach. It includes the commitment to increase the allocation of 7,000 million euros in Education planned for 2024 by 1,500 million more over four years to reach 6% of GDP, or free extracurricular activities.
In this second case, the intention was to incorporate up to twelve municipalities in the environmental educational plans (PEE), until covering all municipalities with centers of educational complexity. These towns are Almacelles, Pontons, Vilafranca del Penedès, Cabra del Camp, Salomó, Montblanc, El Pla de Santa Maria, La Jonquera, Palamó, Roda de Berà and La Escala.
The proposal also included allocating 33 million euros to extend the coverage of the 70% bonus on the school lunch price to 25,000 new students from socially vulnerable families. The Government points out that with this measure "half of the students who use the school cafeteria" would have access to a dining scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year, "whether for the value of 70% or 100% of the price."
Regarding health, the Government offered the common people to provide 20 million euros for the National Mental Health and Emotional Well-being Pact for the deployment of new actions, or 1.3 million for the 2021-2025 suicide prevention plan. . One of the main requests of the common people, primary health care, would also be rewarded with an increase of 144 million euros in the Department of Health, reaching up to 25% of the total budget of this department.
In terms of housing, the Catalan Executive has proposed that Albiach allocate 53 million euros to the Catalan Habitat Agency to incorporate 550 new homes for the emergency tables during 2024. The document also aims to increase to 72 % rental aid for young people, which would bring the amount to 50 million euros.
Among many other points, it also highlights the intention to increase the tax on tourist establishments on short-duration cruises (less than twelve hours) from 3 to 4.5 euros, in order to increase revenue by 1.1 million euros.
