The Security Board of Catalonia will meet during the first quarter of this year. This was agreed upon by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the minister of the sector, Joan Ignasi Elena, during a meeting held this Tuesday afternoon in Madrid. In the meeting, which lasted two hours, Elena insisted on the escort service for former president Carles Puigdemont.
According to sources from both departments, the meeting was held in “a climate of coordination.” At the meeting, the degree of coordination between the State security forces and bodies and the Mossos d’Esquadra was “satisfactorily assessed.”
The same sources also assure that Marlaska and Elena have confirmed “the good degree of compliance” with the agreements adopted at the last Catalan Security Board, held in November 2021. As the most notable point of that agenda, a expansion of the Mossos staff by 3,739 officers, 20% of the strength at that time of 18,267 agents. It was agreed that the increase is progressive, such that at the end of the process, in 2040, the workforce will be made up of 22,006 police officers.
The Ministry of the Interior insists that this growth is in line with the process of increasing the National Police and Civil Guard staff, promoted by Marlaska, which has allowed a considerable increase since 2018.
The 2021 Security Board also agreed to promote the necessary procedures for the Mossos to be considered agents of a Member State in the European Union, so that they can carry out cross-border surveillance tasks.
The meeting held today in the Interior, according to sources, had not been scheduled to close any specific topic. Progress has been made, and it is expected that the issues on the table will be given the green light at the next Security Meeting, which will be held this quarter, as agreed. Everything will depend on the agenda of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, who will chair the event.
There has been time for the Minister of the Interior to insist on the authorization that the Ministry must issue in order to provide Puigdemont with bodyguards, as Elena requested by letter last November. However, just as she answered in a recent interview with La Vanguardia, Marlaska has answered that she is still pending the report that she requested from the State Attorney’s Office.
