Politics

The Catalan Government considers the Spanish Government to be “disloyal” for unilaterally setting the new deficit objectives and for not allowing the same degree of flexibility to the autonomous communities, who manage all basic services. The Autonomies’ new deficit target has been set at 1.5% while that of the Spanish Government is set at 4%. Mariano Rajoy has announced that Spain will have a total public deficit of 5.8% of its GDP, and not the 4.4% previously agreed with the rest of the European Union Member States. Rajoy has argued that, with a recession coming, the situation has changed and the stability pact foresees changing the targets.

Unemployment has reached a new historical record in Catalonia, with 641,948 people being signed on. These figures mean that 8,738 more people were out of work in February compared to January. In Spain as a whole unemployment increased by 112,269 people in February. This is 2.44% more than the previous month and puts the total number of people registered as unemployed on February 29th at 4,712,098.

ACN interviewed Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Digital Agenda. Her “dream” would be to reach a European Union single market for mobile phone and internet services. “It is not normal” that when crossing artificial borders, “the borders from the past, you can see it in your bills” she said. Kroes affirmed that by 2015, mobile phone roaming fees from one EU country to another will have ceased. The EU Commissioner was attending the Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona every year. Kroes praised Barcelona’s good job at organising the MWC. And she stated that the Catalan capital “needs to find its own model”, although “Silicon Valley is a very good example”.

Residents in Catalonia will be able to buy treasury bonds from the Catalan Government in April for the fourth time since 2010. The money will be used for interest repayments, in May, of a former bonds auction. The exact interest rate or the amounts to be raised are still unknown but the Catalan Government’s Deputy Finance Minister has said they hope to get “as much as possible”.

With the measure, Barcelona will no longer host the headquarters of the Spanish Authority regulating the Telecommunications Market (CMT). However, the Catalan capital could still host a delegation of the new body, considering the presence of telecommunications companies in the Catalan capital. The Spanish Government has approved the creation of a single super regulatory body controlling competition throughout Spain, including stock markets and other specific markets such as energy, telecommunications, railways, airports, audiovisual media, and postal services. The new body will directly depend on the Spanish Economy Ministry.

The plan has a €420 million euro budget for 2012 and aims to foster quality education by changing the current system based on subsidising training courses offered by job-placement organisations and municipalities for another model based on framework contracts and grouping the actors involved. The Catalan Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations explained that the new plan would include specific policies aimed at young people, the disadvantaged, as well as for the sectors and territories hardest hit by the economic crisis.

The salary drop is to be added to the 5% cutback in 2010 and the 2011 salary freeze despite the increase in inflation. Trade unions denounced that since May 2010, Catalan public employees have lost 20% of their purchasing power. In addition, trade unions have abandoned negotiations as they say the Catalan Government is imposing the measures. The Vice President, Joana Ortega, stressed that the measure is “temporary”, in principle only for 2012; however she did not discard the idea of repeating it in 2013 if the economic situation requires so. The measure will save €180 million this year, which is part of the €625 million package to be saved that affects public employee labour conditions.

The Spanish Minister for Public Works and Transport, Ana Pastor, announced she would prioritise the Central Railway Corridor, which would link the Gibraltar area with Madrid, Zaragoza, Toulouse and the rest of Europe through the Central Pyrenees. The European Commission announced in October it would not fund the Central Corridor, but those along the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts, where the main industrial centres and ports are located. The Catalan business community and political parties have pushed for the Mediterranean Corridor. Their fear was that the current crisis combined with prioritising the construction of a second corridor might push resources away from the Mediterranean.

As agreed, the PP abstained during the vote on the Catalan Government’s budget for 2012. The final text was approved with the 62 votes from CiU MPs, which controls the Catalan Government, the one vote from an independent MP, and the abstention of the PP. The rest of the parties have voted against it, in a tense plenary that has formalised the distance between the Government and the Left-Wing opposition parties. The details of some of the budget’s measures will have to be approved in one month, because three minority parties have asked for a “constitutionality” check.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), which controls the Catalan Government, and the People’s Party (PP), the third political party in Catalonia’s Parliament, have agreed to reduce some of the fees from the original proposal, reduce the number of public companies, build new schools and community health centres, and allocate more money to municipalities and victims of terrorism. Furthermore, the agreement goes beyond the budget and foresees the development of laws and plans to foster employment, entrepreneurship and a spending limitation. CiU has denied that it has a “stable agreement” with the PP for the entire term. The PP has demonstrated its new central role in Catalan politics. Every opposition party has criticised the agreement.

Fathallah Sijilmassi is the substitute of Youssef Amrani, who quit after less than one year in office to become Morocco’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. Sijilmassi was Director General of the Moroccan Agency for Investments, and previously served as the Moroccan Ambassador to Paris and earlier to the European Communities. The Union for the Mediterranean has its permanent Secretariat based in Barcelona. The UfM brings together the 27 European Union Member States and 16 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

After last week’s minor train accident, the Spanish Minister for Transport, Ana Pastor, wanted to personally check Barcelona Metropolitan Area’s railway infrastructure. Pastor has recognised that the Spanish Government had not invested the required amount in railway infrastructure in Catalonia. She said that €5.748 billion has not been invested. Many Catalan voices have criticised the Spanish Government’s lack of investment in key transport infrastructure for Catalonia’s economy.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition ‘CiU’, which runs the Catalan Government, is close to reaching an agreement with the Conservative People’s Party (PP) on this year’s budget. They have been negotiating over the past number of weeks, but the PP has insisted on modifying two of CiU’s new measures: the tourist tax and the drug prescription fee. They have subsequently agreed to postpone the tourist tax until November 2012 and Barcelona will have a different fee. In addition, they have decided to exclude people with low incomes from paying the drug prescription fee.

The Catalan Government has announced the deficit for last year was 3.29%, short of the 2.66% target set by Barcelona. The Catalan Minister for the Economy, Andreu Mas-Colell, has praised citizens for having tightened their purse strings, and says Catalonia is on track to meet is 1.3% deficit objective in 2012

The Spanish Government has signed 23 bilateral agreements with other countries that fix Madrid Barajas as the only airport in Spain where their flights can operate. This discriminates against Barcelona El Prat Airport by not permitting it to have international and intercontinental connections. The European Parliament has unanimously approved an amendment presented by a Liberal Catalan Nationalist MEP from CiU.