Government and ERC are given 48 hours to agree on pensions

  • The reform, on which European funds depend, faces its crucial vote in Congress this Monday

  • The Catalan independence group demands from Escrivá an audit report on the Social Security accounts

After having reached a defective social agreement for the reform of pensions, from which employers have taken down at the last minute, the Government has embarked on an express political negotiation of the bill, much to the discontent of parliamentary groups. In just two days (this Friday, November 19, and Monday 22) the parliamentary processing of the bill in the Congress of Deputies has begun and must end, before it goes to the Senate. If this is not the case, the Government will hardly be able to meet the deadline agreed to with Brussels for the reform to be in force on January 1 and be able to access the second tranche of 12,000 million European funds. After a “very tense” meeting this Friday – according to the parliamentary spokespersons consulted – the Government and ERC have given themselves the weekend to reach an agreement before Monday, when the Congress of Deputies will vote on bill for referral to the Senate. If the ‘no’ wins on Monday, the bill that revalues ​​pensions with inflation – among other measures – could be overthrown and returned to the Government.

“A long weekend of negotiations awaits us. At this time the law does not come out,” the ERC spokesman in the Toledo Pact Commission acknowledged to EL PERIÓDICO this Friday, Jordi Salvador. ERC deputies want the bill to incorporate some of the amendments presented by their group to the bill. Of all of them, the most precious is the one that proposes to prepare “a Social Security audit report” which, according to Salvador, should serve to demonstrate that workers’ contributions have served to finance policies of all kinds in recent years, including bonuses to entrepreneurs. From ERC’s point of view, this demonstration would serve to disarm “the arguments of the right” and the catastrophic speeches that want to underline the lack of sustainability of the system and the need for cuts. “Our position (to the bill) is a ‘no’, but we have given the government a bottle of oxygen to continue negotiating this weekend,” he adds.

Against the clock

There is a lot of nervousness among the spokespersons consulted as to whether the reform can finally go ahead. And the ‘match ball’ will be played this Monday, starting at 11:30 a.m., when the Toledo Pact Commission has been convened to debate the amendments of the parliamentary groups until lunchtime and quickly approve the referral of the bill to the Senate. All the spokesmen for the position have complained about the “parliamentary outrage” that these processing times entail, “without giving time to present proposals or for debate,” as the Popular Group complains.

Events have been accelerating in recent days.

Monday, November 15: the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, concluded the negotiation with the social agents for the design of the new Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI). The MEI includes a 0.6 point rise in social contributions for 10 years to accumulate 42,000 million funds in the Social Security piggy bank with which to face the retirement of the ‘baby boomers’. The MEI proposal only had the support of the unions. The employer rejected the agreement.

Thursday, November 18: Escrivá appeared at the Toledo Pact Commission to explain his proposal to launch the MEI. All the opposition groups expressed their discomfort to him over what they considered a “nonentity” of the political negotiation. “It is a conceptual and political error not to have counted on the political groups,” the PNV spokesman, Íñigo Barandiarán, reproached the minister. “When the social agreement fails, as has happened now, the conclusions of the agreement become a hindrance. The primacy must always be recognized to the legislator,” he added.

Related news

Friday, November 19: In the parliamentary process known as the ‘presentation’ of the pension reform bill, in the Toledo Pact Commission, the proposal of the Government’s MEI was incorporated into the text. Also some changes to favor the recognition of the retirement pension for common-law couples. Another change incorporated allows to extend to early retirees involuntarily from 2002 to December 31, 2021 the best treatment derived from the new reduction coefficients of the benefit incorporated in the bill, according to the texts to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access .

Monday, November 22: The Toledo Pact Commission will debate the bill and vote on it with full legislative competence before it is sent to the Senate. Given the rejection expressed to the project by PP, Cs, Vox and some formations of the mixed group, the support of ERC and the PNV will be essential for its approval. “The greatest difficulty resides in ERC”, admit the various parliamentary sources consulted.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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