The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, confirmed this Thursday that in order for Junts to allow the two decrees that he presented yesterday in Congress to be validated, the Government will delegate immigration powers to the Generalitat of Catalonia through a organic law under article 150.2 of the Constitution, thus confirming one of the agreements that the post-convergents announced yesterday in return. However, PSOE sources have qualified other agreements, such as those that refer to the assumption by the State of the cost of all public transport discounts or the publication by the Government of what are known as fiscal balances.
In this regard, socialist sources limit this agreement to that "the Ministry of Finance will allow access to the data to be able to prepare fiscal balances to any Public Administration or research centers so that they can apply their methodology and publish their conclusions." In this way, - they assure - there will be greater transparency and the ability to accurately know the fiscal balance of each Autonomous Community. This has been requested at other times not only by Catalonia, but also by other Autonomous Communities, these sources point out. This explanation contrasts with the one given by Puigdemont's party, which announced "the immediate publication of the fiscal balances, which have not been revealed by the central Administration since 2016."
"The agreement on this matter is that we are going to develop an organic law to delegate powers in matters of immigration," Bolaños acknowledged in statements to TVE this Thursday after yesterday he managed to move forward in the plenary session of Congress (yesterday in the Senate by works) the omnibus and anti-crisis decrees in an agonizing session.
"What the State assumes today can be delegated to the Autonomous Communities as the Constitution says," explained the visibly satisfied minister, alluding to article 150.2 which states that "the State may transfer or delegate to the Autonomous Communities, through organic law, powers corresponding to matters of state ownership that by their very nature are susceptible to transfer or delegation." Sources from the PSOE point out that "no aspect of the Constitution is touched upon", which is why they warn that "the unconstitutionality appeals announced by the PP are, once again, a toast to the sun."
In any case, Bolaños explained that this morning he has already had contacts with the Generalitat, governed by ERC and not by Junts, to talk about this and the rest of the agreements that must be developed into amendments.
On the other hand, Bolaños has qualified another of the agreements that Junts announced yesterday that had removed the PSOE from the negotiation. According to the post-convergents, the State would cover all the costs of public transport discounts. However, the minister has explained that what was agreed is to separate what the State is going to do, that is, assume its 30% share, from what each Autonomous Community must do, which may or may not complement the discount.
The first problem that Junts detected to raise objections to the decree that reformed Justice was article 43 bis of the Civil Procedure Law which, in its opinion, could hinder the application of the amnesty law that yesterday went through the process of amendments to the whole by putting in a legal text a practice that already occurs today. When a judge submits a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) on a case, the case is automatically paralyzed. Minister Bolaños has explained that neither the Royal Decree nor the amendment "does not change the regime for preliminary rulings" and that the Spanish courts retain their full capacity to raise preliminary rulings. At this point, the minister has admitted that within the framework of the conversations "the fact that there was a controversy over an article that changed nothing did not make much sense."
One of the issues that have marked the last days of the negotiations is the return of the companies that removed their headquarters from Catalonia in 2017 by virtue of the Royal Decree approved by the government of Mariano Rajoy. Junts has even asked for sanctions for companies that do not return, an issue that has had a great response, even internally. Yesterday Junts announced measures to facilitate their return and this Thursday the PSOE confirmed that a Support Plan for Catalan companies will be approved by the Council of Ministers to reverse the consequences of that Royal Decree of 2017. Socialist sources point out that this "does not even imply an obligation , nor any sanctions for companies that decide to maintain their headquarters outside of Catalonia."
Junts also demanded that olive oil be considered a basic consumer product with 0% VAT and has managed to get the PSOE to incorporate oil among these products. Socialist sources admit that "given the rise in oil prices, the two political parties have considered it necessary to leave the VAT on the product at 0%."
Another of the announcements made by Junts and confirmed by the PSOE is the increase from 1.2 to 6.2 million euros in the resources allocated to Catalonia for the digitalization of the judicial system. Given that Catalonia is the only community with its own penitentiary management system, 2.25 million euros will be transferred to Catalonia to improve its information and interoperability system and convert Catalan prisons into safe places for videoconferences, indicate the socialist sources that announce another game of 4 million for "digital transformation projects of the Catalan Justice Administration, the community that has the most systems of its own."
One of the agreements that Puigdemont's party highlighted yesterday was the recognition of the historical rights of Catalonia in matters of local government, which for Junts represents "a recognition of the uniqueness of Catalonia in its institutional organization" and in the opinion of the independence party opens ways of recognizing historical rights such as the privileges that had been had in the past and could lead to an economic agreement. This recognition will be done with the inclusion in decree 6/2023 of a clause in the form of an Additional Provision in Law 7/1985 , of April 2, Regulatory of the Bases of the Local Regime whose content will be: "Seventeenth additional provision. Historical rights of Catalonia. The provisions of this Law will be applied respecting in all cases the unique position in terms of institutional system included in article 5 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, as well as the exclusive and shared powers in matters of local regime and territorial organization provided for in said Statute. , in accordance with the competency framework established in the Constitution and especially in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia."
