Security Council documents indicate that Puigdemont, Torra and Aragonès have already negotiated the integration of the Civil Guard in 112

2024-12-16 22:22:00

BarcelonaOne of the main announcements of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, after the last Security Council of Catalonia, on December 5, was the integration of the Civil Guard and the National Police in the 112. “From tomorrow any request to the emergency aid will have a much quicker response,” the minister said. This agreement has raised a lot of dust: the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, will appear in Parliament on Wednesday to discuss it at the request of Junts, ERC, Municipalities and CUP. Republicans have even said that if it were implemented, it would put budgets at risk. However, this is not a new announcement; in fact, it is an agreement on which the two governments have been working for eight years.

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Security Council minutes from 2017, to which the ARA has had access, show that this integration began that year under the presidency of Carles Puigdemont, continued with Quim Torra, progressed with Pere Aragonès and has now culminated with Salvador Illa. The minutes corresponding to the meeting of 10 July 2017 with the then Minister of the Interior, Jordi Jané, read as follows: “The Security Council agrees on the integration of the capabilities of the security forces and the “Status in CAT112” bodies. And in 2021, with Giovanna Ignasi Elena at the head of the department, he assures: «The integration work can be considered completed satisfactorily». He says this in reference to a working group started for this purpose in 2018, with then city councilor Miquel Buch.

Let’s go to Pams. What does this integration entail? Despite Marlaska’s generic announcement – which alarmed independence activists -, according to 112 sources there will be no substantial changes from now on. Currently, when emergency telephone managers – who are operators and not police officers – receive a warning from the Spanish police, they communicate it via phone call. In other words, it is 112 that decides, according to the division of competences, who to send it to. This has been happening since 2017, when there was the first agreement on the matter. With the integration agreed with Illa this call will be eliminated and you will receive an electronic alert, as happens with most local police forces, such as the Urban Guard, or even the Port Police. Now, despite the Security Council minutes of 5 December 2024 saying that the change will be implemented after 24 hours, 112 sources admit that it has not yet been possible to put it into practice.

In the latest agreement, unlike the previous ones, it is not specified that the integration of the Civil Guard and the National Police will fall within their competences, which makes some former Interior officials suspicious. However, consulted on this issue, sources from both the Generalitat and the Moncloa confirm that the integration of the Spanish police will only take place in the sectors of their competence, which represent a very small percentage of alerts: between January and November 2024, 112 were found in 989,000 notices to Mossos; 181 in the Spanish police and 57 in the civil guard. These are the data of the interventions provided by 112 itself, whose general director is Irene Fornós, who comes from the Aragonese government. From ERC they criticized the fact that the announcement of the integration was accompanied by the postponement of the Mosso’s new powers.

The literalness of the acts

According to the 2017 Council minutes, at the time the “integration of the capabilities” of the Spanish police in the 112 had already been agreed, although last week in plenary Josep Rius (JxCat), then member of the Puigdemont cabinet, assured that only “the possibility was put on the table.” In fact, this is what Junts claims: that nothing practical came out of the 2017 agreement, and the proof, they say, is that working groups were held subsequently and that “integration” is taking place now

The internal leaders of 2017 consulted by the ARA and present at that first Security Council which had not met since 2009 explain that the 112 issue was a transfer of the Catalan executive in exchange for other more relevant ones: they refer to the recognition of the debt from part of the State for the transfers of the Mossos up to that point and the integration of the Catalan police into the Intelligence Center against Organized Crime (CITCO). However, nothing was immediate.

This is demonstrated by the fact that the two themes then recur in these meetings. The minutes of 6 September 2018 read that “a working group is established to analyze and implement the mechanisms for integrating the capabilities of the forces and state security forces, in their areas of competence, in CAT112”. It should be noted that it is at the request of the Spanish government. And, as regards the CITCO, it is on 8 September 2018, two days after the Council, that the Interior announces the integration of the Mossos into this body within a period of 30 days.

The evolution of work groups

These working groups on 112, of a technical nature, therefore, were started, but “it was slow, very slow”, recalls a manager of the time. The main problem, according to various sources, was technological: it was very difficult to integrate the electronic system of the Spanish police with that of 112, which works differently from those of the rest of the state. Spanish politicians and police visited emergency services facilities and tests were carried out. According to the sources consulted, these working groups met several times in the summer of 2019 and in January 2020, when Joan Delort, then head of the 112, was tasked with leading these works.

Only in the 2021 Security Council minutes was everything finalized. “The integration work can be said to have been completed satisfactorily,” he says, although it has been agreed to create a new working group to deal with how all police forces can take up developments in the incidents. Be that as it may, despite this 2021 agreement, the Guardia Civil and the National Police still do not have the electronic letter and the information is transmitted via calls. “The ministry was extremely slow, technological integration did not take place”, stated the Generalitat leaders at the time.

And how does it all end? The 2024 Security Council agreement, previously with Illa, concludes: “It is agreed that the two police forces will be integrated into this system starting at zero hours on the day following the meeting.” So now yes: has the integration already been achieved? 112 sources admit that it will not be possible to completely achieve telematic integration.