Editorial | Catalonia must participate in multilateral negotiation

The next few weeks will be crucial in determining economic and financial resources with which the autonomies will have to face their government programs. Between now and the end of the year, the Congress of Deputies will have to approve the general budgets of the State, the debate on NextGeneration fund distribution of the European Union, and a proposal for a new Autonomous Financing System will be on the table intended to replace, with delay, the one of 2009. It is not surprising that, given the importance of these challenges, the Autonomous Communities have begun to take positions to improve their relative position in the final distribution of available resources. The proximity of the negotiations has led to cross-sectional alliances, between communities governed by the PP with others from the PSOE, with the aim of achieving a more equitable, and more favorable, distribution to the peripheral autonomies. One of the most active presidents in this search for allies has been the Valencian Ximo Puig, who has not been hurt when approaching the popular Juan Maria Moreno, President of Andalusia, while promoting a meeting with his counterparts from the former Crown of Aragon. From different interests, the president of the Junta de Galicia, Alberto Núnez Feijóo, of the PP, has tried to attract his socialist counterpart from Castilla la Mancha, Emilio García Page, to a front of communities that are considered damaged by population criteria that do not take into account the territories where the population is smaller and lives more dispersed.

It is surprising that the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, do not be part of any of these initiatives. His refusal to participate in multilateral fields constitutes a hindrance from the times of the ‘procés’. As if the symbolism of a bilateral strategy was more important than what Catalonia can obtain by participating, and even leading, initiatives such as Ximo Puig’s. The fact that he sent a ‘councilwoman’ of the Generalitat to the summit of the employers’ associations of Catalonia, Valencia, Aragón and the Balearic Islands that was held in Zaragoza, and in which the other presidents of the communities involved attended, meant losing the opportunity to add the Catalan demands to those of a broader front, with more possibilities of success. Furthermore, ERC’s refusal to participate in a multilateral strategy, even if one of variable geometry, only benefits the populist positions of its partner in government, Together for Catalonia, and it contributes to the idea that Catalonia is participating in the debate on the new financing from an unsupportive position. A position that can favor the idea, encouraged from the PP and from some sectors of the PSOE, that the negotiating table between Catalonia and the Government of Spain only intends to seek bilateral benefits to the detriment of inter-territorial solidarity.

Catalonia should not limit the ongoing debate to the distribution of existing resources. You must make your voice heard on the ongoing tax reform, and whose committee of experts will render an account of its work in February. It must and can influence a tax system that presents tax returns worse than those of the European average. And it must be involved in improving the effectiveness of public spending. Tasks that have a long history and that constitute the only way to capture more resources and use them better without ceasing to attend to reasonable criteria of solidarity.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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