The governments of Spain and Catalonia have opened on Monday a new stage of cooperation, dialogue and agreements with the celebration of the State-Generalitat Bilateral Commission and the Joint Transfer Commission.
The commissions took place after a previous meeting between the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, in the Palau de la Generalitat. Twenty or so agreements have been adopted.
With today’s working day, the Joint Committee on Infrastructure on February 17 and the Joint Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs that will take place on February 28, this month will culminate in the celebration of four committees with “which begins a path of institutional normality, dialogue, agreement and co-governance”, said Minister Torres, who has chaired the committees together with the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau.
Torres has affirmed that in politics “understanding is always better than confrontation” and has valued positively that the Joint Commission has been held, after 14 years. “Governing means responding to agreements,” he said.
The minister added that today is a “good day for those who work with dialogue”, after it was known that the Government of Spain will forgive 83,252 million euros of the regional debt, since this means a great advance in the “strengthening of the Welfare State and public services”, and added that “maybe it is not such a good day for the catastrophists and those who are always in denial”.
For his part, Councillor Dalmau welcomed the good agreement of both administrations and pointed out that today’s agreements show that “the dynamics of communication and co-governance bear much more fruit than that of confrontation”.
Featured Bilateral Commission Agreements
· The expansion of the staff of the Police of the Generaltitat-Mossos d'Esquadra to reach 25,000 in 2030, given that both Administrations agree on the need to dimension the answers given in terms of security.
· An improvement of the services in the Administration of Justice with a shock plan to achieve a ratio of judges that fits the state average.
· Promotion of the necessary actions for the Generalitat to recover the functions prior to the Law of Rationalization and Sustainability of the Administration of 2013. In this way, the closest administration will be able to improve the planning of resources and nationally empowered staff.
· Implementation of a pilot project for a one-stop service that integrates all the services and procedures of the State and the Government of Catalonia. A new citizen service for which a working group will be created.
· The working group created in 2007 is entrusted with the necessary technical analysis to be able to comply with the 3rd additional provision of the Statute, on the investments of the State in Catalonia. In parallel, the State-Generalitat Joint Committee on Economic and Fiscal Affairs is charged with setting up a working group for the creation of the joint investment consortium.
· Extension of the use of part of the building of the Plaza Eusebi Güell, 4-5 so that the Generalitat can dedicate it to any use admitted by the urban planning and the beginning of the file to cede the building located in Ronda Sant Pere, 41.
Joint Transfer Commission Agreements
The Joint Commission of Transfers State Generalitat has not been held for more than 14 years (November 2010). This included the transfers that had already been dealt with at the meeting held on January 15 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, in which the minister, Ángel Víctor Torres, the councillor, Albert Dalmau, and the Secretary of State, Arcadi Spain, who also accompanied the minister in the commissions held on Monday.
Among the transfers specified today is the management of grants and study grants, which will be effective from January 1, 2026; the updating of the modules by the implementation of judicial units in Catalonia; the transfer of the Xerta Sènia canal in the municipal terms of Godall, Roquete, Santa Bárbara and Tortosa; the transfer of nine hydraulic works, in the framework of works executed by the program of sanitation of urban wastewater in the basin of the Ebro and of the actions of reuse of the water of the Baix Llobregat; and two more transfers in the field of conservation.
