2023-12-11 18:40:39
The fourth vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, This Monday, he requested that it be recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) that there have been no bilateral negotiations with Catalonia to design a “unique” financing system for this autonomous community.
This was confirmed by Montero herself in the press conference after the meeting held with the regional Finance Ministers (the CPFF) in which, precisely, Catalonia was not represented by the Minister. Natalia But, but by the secretary general Josep María Villarúbia. Mas had justified his absence from the CPFF with the argument that “it is not a debate body” but rather a place where the State, which has the majority, communicates the objectives and maintains “unfair” financing for Catalonia. Furthermore, according to Mas, the ERC pact with the socialists provides for a bilateral dialogue table with the State to negotiate a “unique” financing model for Catalonia
“There has not been any bilateral meeting with Catalonia about the financing model,” said Montero at a press conference, addressing the indignation previously shown by all the PP autonomies and the misgivings expressed by Castilla-La Mancha (PSOE). facing a possible “singular” treatment for the Catalan community. The truth is that the words of the fourth vice president and Minister of Finance, – at the time, deputy general secretary of the PSOE and negotiator of the investiture agreements with ERC and Junts (among others) – do not allow us to rule out possible future meetings.
Deficit targets for 2024
Catalonia has thus become the involuntary protagonist of a meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), the first since July 2022, which had been called by the Ministry of Finance to vote on the path of deficit and debt objectives of the autonomous communities for the period 2024-2027 (a previous step for the preparation of the budgets).
The path of stability that the Ministry of Finance has put on the table includes for 2024 a deficit target of 3% of GDP for all public administrations, distributed among 2.7% for the State and a 0.1% for the autonomous communities. For the local corporations a balanced budget is expected and for the Social Security, a deficit of 0.2%. These objectives coincide with the reference rates that the acting Government sent to Brussels on October 15.
The vote against the 14 communities in whose government the PP participates has not prevented the path of stability proposed by the Government from moving forward, since the Treasury has 51% of the votes in the CPFF.
The meeting has also served the Treasury to communicate to the communities the resources they will have available in 2024 from the financing system, that will reach a record of 154,467 million euros (20 billion more than in 2023, an increase of 14.9%). The resources for town halls will rise to 28,557 million (22.6% more than in 2023).
There has been no progress on the issue of forgiveness of regional debt. The Minister of Finance has informed the regional Finance officials that starting in January she will hold meetings with each of them in order to determine the scope that the debt forgiveness that has already been agreed for Catalonia for an amount of 15,000 will have for each territory. millions of euros.
Expenditure ceiling and parliamentary procedure
After the approval of the path of deficit and debt objectives that the Government has taken this Monday to the CNAL (National Commission for Local Administration) and the CPFF, the Minister council if he has a approve the spending ceiling this Tuesday under which you can prepare the State Budget project for 2024.
He Minister council will also formally adopt the path of deficit and debt targets for its referral to Congress and the Senate, since it is mandatory that each of the two legislative chambers approve the stability objectives.
The absolute majority held by the PP in the Senate could veto the approval of the path of deficit and debt objectives. Until now, there were doubts about the consequences that this veto could have, since the idea had been established that this could block the approval of the State Budgets and, therefore, of the autonomous communities.
However, the fourth vice president and Minister of Finance revealed this Monday that she has a legal report from the services of the State Attorney’s Office which interprets that if the Senate vetoes the path of deficit objectives up to two times, those that were incorporated in the Stability Plan that Spain sent to Brussels last April will be automatically applied. If this happens, the autonomous communities should adapt their Budgets to a target of budget balance (which is the one that was incorporated in the April document) and they would lose the greater margin for greater spending that the possibility of a 0.1% deficit grants them. (which is what is being proposed now) Therefore, Montero has concluded that if the PP vetoes the path of objectives “it would be like throw stones at your own roof“, since the communities governed by the popular ones would have a lower spending margin in 2024.
Misgivings in the rest of the communities
From a political point of view, this Monday’s CPFF meeting has been marked by the absence of the Catalan councilor Natàlia Mas, which was interpreted in unison by the communities governed by the PP as a sign that the Treasury had already agreed with Catalonia its own figures, bilaterally. “If an autonomous community decides not to come, it is because it has already done everything,” said the Minister of the Treasury of EstremaduraElena Manzano, before joining the meeting and complained about the existence of “first and second class communities”. The PP councilors are suspicious of the possibility of a “singular” financing model for Catalonia; but also, the forgiveness of 15,000 million of autonomous debt of the Catalan community, since, although the Government insists that the forgiveness will be extended to all the autonomous communities, the criteria that the Government will apply are unknown and the Minister of Finance has not given no new clue about it at this Monday’s meeting of the CPFF.
Misgivings had also been expressed from the socialist ranks. The advisor of Castilla la ManchaAlfonso Ruiz Molina (PSOE), the CPFF attended the meeting with the intention of asking the Government “to clarify or deny” whether a “unique” financing model is being negotiated with Catalonia, as “the independentistas” maintain. “Here we are talking about the fact that most of us eat the menu of the day and that some want eat a la carteand we don’t know what the reasons for this could be, taking into account that we all have the same skills,” Ruiz Molina said before the match.
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At the end of the meeting, Montero was clear when assuring that there had been no no bilateral meeting, But the truth is that his words do not allow us to rule out possible future meetings.
And this is not precisely what some of the regional councilors seemed to interpret at the end of the CPFF meeting. The advisor of Castilla la Mancha, Alfonso Ruiz Molina (PSOE), said that the minister’s words had dispelled his fears about a possible bilateral negotiation with Catalonia on the reform of regional financing. And he interpreted the same the counselor of MadridRocío Albert López-Ibor (PP): “They have assured us, and the minister wanted the minutes to be recorded, that there is no bilateral negotiation with Catalonia, that nothing is being negotiated, so I think we can be very calm, despite the agreement between Junts and the PSOE, because the minister says that she does not have any bilateral negotiations, which does not coincide with what the Minister of Catalonia says.
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