The Ministry of Finance meets this morning in Madrid with the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), in which the Ministers of Finance and Economy of the autonomous communities participate in the absence of the Minister of the Generalitat, Natàlia Mas. The Catalan politician has declined to participate because she maintains that the Government already has a bilateral negotiation open to agree on a new “singular” financing for the community and because she considers that, in reality, the CPFF is not a debate body since the Government has a majority. in the votes.
In statements to the press in Barcelona this morning, Mas said that from this bilateral negotiation it is “through which we will fight for resources.” The councilor has justified her absence from the meeting because the way of acting must be changed since in her opinion, in order to obtain different results, things must be done differently.
But he recalled that the Generalitat is represented in the CPFF through the Secretary General of Economy, Josep Maria Villarrubia, and the Director General of Budgets, Esther Pallerols. Years ago, Mas already went to a CPFF as secretary of the Department of Economy in place of the minister at that time, Pere Aragonès.
Mas has also criticized that the CPFF should meet every six months and, however, this year it had not done so and was urgently convened at the last minute.
In the CPFF, the autonomous communities will be informed of the stability objectives that will serve as a reference to prepare the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2024. This body, of which the central and regional governments are part, must issue a report prior to the approval of this path of stability, which must also be taken into account for the preparation of the budgets of each of the communities.
The CPFF will meet on the same day that the deadline ends for the different management centers of the ministries to send to the General Directorate of Budgets their proposals for the budget project, a law that the Government wants to take to Congress as soon as possible. Looking ahead to the next financial year, the Government – at that time in office – sent the 2024 budget plan to Brussels in October, which included a deficit forecast of around 3% for next year and a public debt ratio below 110% of GDP already by 2023. Of that deficit, 0.1% corresponded to the communities.
Through the social network that covers essential public services and will demand that all Communities be treated equally. “We want you to address the reform of regional financing once and for all, since currently it does not cover the provision of services in health, education and social services,” he posted.