On the eve of the start, this coming midnight, of the campaign for the elections to the Parliament, two professional associations of the highest level, that of Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports and that of Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya, have raised their voices to demand the candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat who put aside partisan and short-term strategies and commit to working together for “a Catalonia that must provide answers to today’s challenges and, in particular, to the transformations in environmental and digital matters, from talent and new forms of leadership.” “It is time to think big again,” say the engineers, who are very critical of the drift of inefficiency that Catalan politics has taken in recent times.
The two colleges of engineers have presented today the manifesto Rigor, knowledge and experience. Five national consensuses for the Catalonia of 2050, a document addressed to the presidential candidates of the May 12 elections. The promoters of this statement demand from the candidates the commitment to assume the achievement of five major consensuses in the next legislature: in infrastructure, for the water transition, for the energy transition, for the industry and for the competitiveness of the public sector. They formulate their proposal supported by the “transcendental role” that they attribute to themselves in the social and economic transformation of Catalonia in the last two centuries, based on figures such as Ildefons Cerdà Frederick Pearson, Victoriano Muñoz Homs, Pere Duran Farell or, more recently, Gabriel Ferraté, Albert Serratosa or Joan Vallvé, personalities who “were ahead of their time” thus allowing them to “gain quality of life and generate economic wealth for different generations.”
Faced with a perspective of demographic growth, globalization of the economy, increase in geopolitical conflicts and the urgency of providing responses to climate change and technological disruptions, engineering professionals call on politicians: “It is time – they say – to think and act to build the Catalonia of the second half of the 21st century, from collective ambition and enthusiasm, but with rigor, knowledge and experience, and with a global and systemic vision above partial and localist interests.”
The first consensus suggested by the Col·legi d’Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports and the Col·legi d’Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya refers to infrastructures. They warn that “Catalonia accumulates increasingly flagrant deficiencies” as a consequence of the exhaustion of planning agreed upon decades ago, “short-term growth,” “meager investments” and repeated non-compliance with budgets. In his opinion, the most immediate consensus (already for the next legislature) should include actions that should have been resolved a long time ago, such as the expansion of the Barcelona airport, access to the port, the Ronda del Vallès, the central section of the L9 of the metro and the improvement of Rodalies.
The drought makes it necessary, according to engineers, a second country consensus, that of the water transition, to reduce dependence on rain with a firm and unpostponable commitment to regeneration, desalination and network interconnection. It is worth remembering that these two entities are part of the group of five professional associations that, at the end of last year, signed a manifesto demanding interconnection that makes it possible to bring water from the Ebro to the Barcelona region.
The third commitment that the engineering associations demand from the candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat revolves around the energy transition until reaching emissions neutrality in 2050. They warn, however, that “Catalonia is not advancing at the necessary pace as “if other territories and countries around us do it, which reduces our competitiveness and opportunities for economic and social development in the present and future.”
Also addressing the need for a consensus in favor of the industry that generates wealth and quality employment, the engineers point out that Catalonia needs to “take a leap forward to get closer to other European and world regions with which it must be measured in terms of competitiveness”. The National Pact for Industry serves as a starting point, but not an arrival point.
The latest consensus claimed is based on the realization that the Catalan administration “is heavy and rigid”, suffers from excessive bureaucracy and unprofessional leadership. It requires, therefore, a “deep reform” along the lines of de-bureaucratization and streamlining to “reverse the growing distance between the administered and the administration.”
The engineers conclude that these five consensuses are essential to “ensure a future in which quality of life, economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability are not only aspirations but tangible realities.” And in pursuit of that objective they offer politicians their “rigor, knowledge and experience.”
