The Bilateral Government-Generalitat Commission is meeting today in Barcelona. This meeting has socialists in many regions holding their breath, as it will address the so-called “unique funding” for Catalonia. An agreement is expected to advance Catalonia’s tax management of personal income tax (IRPF). The pact signed last year between the PSOE and ERC involves giving the Catalan government the management, collection, settlement, and inspection of taxes obtained in Catalonia, a long-standing demand of Catalan nationalism.
The separatist leader of ERC, the pardoned Oriol Junqueras, has already stated that they will not settle for managing less than 30 billion euros in the first transfer of powers. Although the definitive progress of this “unique funding” would entail a reform of the Organic Law on the Funding of Autonomous Communities and two other regulations, this is a parliamentary task of considerable difficulty.
ERC has always maintained that the agreed-upon model is similar to the Basque “cupo” (quota) but with a solidarity share. However, the Basque government assures that its system also contributes to helping other territories. Taking data from 2021 and comparing what the Basque “cupo” represents with respect to the overall collection of the chartered territory, the “cupo” contribution is around 9% of taxes. In 2023, the Generalitat estimated, using data from two years prior, that the maximum potential collection for Catalonia, applying the logic of the Basque “cupo,” would mean a revenue gain for Catalonia of about 22 billion euros.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha, the socialist Emiliano García Page, has already called this matter an “absurdity” and insisted that it involves giving Catalonia “a privilege” that is outside the Constitution “because only the Constitution should protect exceptions, as is the case with the Basque and Navarran issues.” Asturian socialists, who are in government, have also publicly spoken out against this unique funding agreement, a matter that divides socialists.
Attending today’s meeting on behalf of the Government are the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy, Arcadi España, and the Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who is also the PSOE candidate to preside over the Junta de Andalucía, will not be attending.
