The autonomous communities of the PP have formed a common front against the Treasury in the first meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) of the legislature. The agenda set by the Ministry includes only the completion of the stability path, which will be 0.1%, an objective to comply with fiscal rules but which will force regional governments, in general, to make severe adjustments. in their public accounts. The Valencian Community, for example, closed 2022 with a deficit of 3,860 million, 3.1% of its GDP.
The Treasury has informed the autonomous communities that they will have to adjust to this objective, while the General Administration reserves 2.9%, in order to comply with the 3% committed to Brussels. The PP governments consider that this is an “unequal” distribution, said the Minister of Economy, Finance and European Funds of the Government of Andalusia, Carolina España, one of the most critical.
The General Secretariat of Autonomous and Local Financing of the Ministry has explained to the regional governments that they understand their complaints, but that the central Government has made this decision because it is the State that makes a greater effort to combat inflation and to extend the social shield with “expensive” fiscal measures. “We do not understand this unfair distribution,” responded from several autonomous communities of the PP.
The investiture pact between the PSOE and ERC in which a reduction of 20% of the debt contracted by Catalonia with the FLA was agreed has also been the cause of complaint by a large majority of the autonomous communities. Some criticisms to which Castilla-La Mancha has joined. His advisor, Juan Alfonso Ruiz, has stated that his government will demand forgiveness of his debt in a percentage greater than that 20%. The Government of Emiliano García Page has also criticized the autonomous communities of the PP that demand greater resources and, in turn, lower taxes.
The PP governments have attacked as a bloc against a bilateral negotiation on financial matters with the Catalan independence parties. Andalusia considers that it is “a lack of respect” for the rest of the citizens. The Catalan councilor did not attend the meeting and in her place were present the Secretary General of the Economy, Josep Maria Villarrubia, and the General Director of Pressupostos, Esther Pallerols. The Basque councilor, Pedro María Azpiazu, has not attended either, as is usual. Euskadi considers that its relationship with the Treasury is bilateral, through the Joint Economic Agreement Commission.
The vast majority of those present in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council have also demanded that the payments on account that they will receive next year from the Ministry of Finance be made. The Government did not have it on the agenda to reveal this concept, although sources from the department headed by María Jesús Montero indicate that they will specify a figure throughout the meeting. The popular autonomous governments denounce that they have had to configure their budget projects without this specification.
In the run-up to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, the Treasury has specified to the city councils, at the meeting of the National Commission for Local Administration (CNAL), that local entities will receive 28,557 million in resources from the financing system during 2024. The This figure grows by 22.6% compared to 2023 and is the highest in history.
The reform of the financing model has been another of the demands of a vast majority of governments, popular and socialist. The Generalitat Valenciana, the most active in this claim, has insisted on the “immediate” reactivation of the paralyzed works, has requested counselor Ruth Merino. The last move by the Treasury was to propose a new calculation method based on adjusted population. The Community of Madrid has chosen not to make statements at the entrance to the meeting.