The Government of the Generalitat launches the machinery to address the design of a new financing model for Catalonia. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romeroannounced this Monday that there is now the green light to activate the program that will guide the implementation of the new regional financing framework and has revealed that it is putting economist Martí Carnicer at the head of the work table. Carnicer, 73 years old, has been retired from the forefront of politics for some time but was mayor of El Vendrell (Tarragona) for more than twenty years and was part of the PSC parliamentary group in several legislatures. Between 2003 and 2010, he was Secretary General of Economy, in the ministry headed by Antoni Castells. Alícia Romero made the announcement during an interview on the program Here Catalonia of Cadena Ser, and has highlighted the competence of the team chosen to work on a matter that was decisive in unblocking the investiture of Salvador Illa. The agreement between the PSC and Esquerra Republicana includes the commitment to “promote a unique financing system that advances towards full fiscal sovereignty.”
Minister Romero has avoided talking about calendars but has recalled that the pact with Esquerra It foresees that the year 2025 must serve to lay the foundations to be able to collect, in 2026, personal income tax in Catalonia. He admits the complexity of the tax engineering that is needed to be able to carry it out: “It is not easy but we will work to make it possible,” he said. Asked about the impact that altering the financial distribution in Catalonia could have on the rest of the autonomous communities, the Minister of Economy pointed out that Catalonia deserves a “unique and fair” model and highlighted that “whenever a new financing model, new resources have been injected into the system.” In this sense, he said, the central Administration “will have to analyze whether to provide more resources.” He has argued that “the autonomous communities manage 70% of public spending and they need to be better financed.” “We want all the singularities, especially that of Catalonia, to be reflected in this new model,” he added.
Regarding whether the new Catalan financing model is a kind of shadow Basque concert, the Catalan counselor pointed out that “it was Esquerra who decided to call it singular financing, and does not talk about anything else,” she stated.
The new work program to give it shape, which will have the technical assistance of the Department of Economy staff, will be developed with the advice of a group of experts, led by Carnicer. Members of the group are Maite Vilalta Ferrer, professor of Public Finance at the University of Barcelona (UB) and member of the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB). She is an expert in fiscal federalism and regional and local finance; Vicent Soler Marco, Doctor in Economics from the University of Valencia, professor of Applied Economics and researcher at the London School of Economics. He was Minister of Finance and Economic Model in the Generalitat Valenciana (2015-2022); Alex Esteller Moré, Doctor in Economics from the University of Barcelona and Director of Research at the IEB in Analysis of Fiscal Systems; Marta Espasa Queralt, who was dismissed last month as Secretary of Finance of the Generalitat, a position she had been holding in the governments of Pere Aragonès and Quim Torra. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona and a specialist in public economics, regional and local financing, fiscal balances and territorial redistribution; Joan Ramon Rovira Homs, Doctor in Economics from the University of Manchester and head of the Economic and Infrastructure Studies office of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce; Jesús Ruiz-Huerta Carbonell, professor of Applied Economics at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid, was director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies between 2004 and 2008.
Two weeks ago, during the first general policy debate that Salvador Illa had to face as president, ERC warned that its support for the Government is conditioned for there to be tangible signs of “ambition” to achieve real progress in the “fiscal sovereignty” of Catalonia: “Without the implementation of singular financing there can be no legislature,” said Josep Maria Jové, president of the Esquerra parliamentary group. Illa responded that she intends to give “any effort” to fulfill the agreement.
