According to PSC leader Salvador Illa, “Catalonia does not fail, what fails is the Government”. The conclusion, launched by the head of the opposition during the general policy debate a couple of weeks ago, was reaffirmed by his team yesterday, at the second monitoring meeting of the Catalan budgets this year after the agreement that the allowed, signed in February. The result of the meeting was “disappointing” for the socialists, as a result of the “paralysis” in the execution of many of the agreed projects.
According to PSC sources, the pace of compliance with the agreement “is not adequate”, something they have been complaining about since the beginning of the summer, when the two parties held the first meeting to monitor the pact. Since then, “it has gone from 11% to 16% of implemented measures”, they point out, a poor balance if you take into account that the budget agreement consists of a total of 281 measures.
The Island party regrets that in this second meeting, the Government “has not provided satisfactory explanations or any documentation on the level of execution” of these measures. They see a “lack of self-demand” and an “externalization of responsibilities” on the part of the Catalan Executive to justify its paralysis.
With the current slow pace, the socialist sources consulted see it as “impossible” that the Government will be able to comply with the bulk of the measures before the end of the year and give as an example the inaction in matters of exclusive responsibility, such as the payment of the increase in social service fees, which the agreement places at 4% and with retroactive effect from January 1.
Unlike the PSC, the Catalan Executive sees the glass as half full. They point out that of the 281 measures agreed, 224 are underway; 44 are completed and 13 are pending to start. In this way, “96% of the agreed measures are already underway or have been completed”, they boast. In addition, they allege that of the 13 that have not yet started, six “cannot be executed until the Spanish Government moves its cue”. Among which, they mention works of the Mediterranean corridor project or Rodalies.
Illa already reproached Aragonès for this inaction in the execution of the budget during the general policy debate in Parliament, when he accused him of “not doing and many times not letting it be done”, and warned that “the responsibility to execute the budget it’s not from the socialists, it’s from Mr. Aragonès”.
Although the socialist leader offered to agree on next year’s budgets, he made it conditional on the acceleration of compliance with the current one. But the Government has not yet given signs of wanting to approve the 2014 budgets, beyond Aragonès’ statement, in the same debate, that he aspires to approve them with a “large majority” of Parliament.
For this, Illa is loaded with reasons and for weeks has started a round of contacts with social and economic agents to discuss the execution of the current accounts and the expectations for next year’s.
