Alicia Romero: "We are moving toward a financing model with a federal vision."

The regional minister for Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero (Caldes d'Estrac, 1976), meets with La Vanguardia following the financing agreement signed with the government last Monday.

Honestly, are you satisfied with the financing agreement?

I'm satisfied. Agreements are never easy to reach. We reached a very brave and ambitious investiture pact with ERC, in which we revived the spirit of the 2005 Statute of Autonomy, and now we've worked on this agreement with the central government with a very receptive attitude. Considering the political context, I think they've been brave, knowing it would generate a lot of criticism, but we've put a new architecture on the table, which we hope can be presented between September and October.

To clarify, will Catalonia hold the key to the cash register of what its taxpayers pay?

For me, it's clear. Catalonia will collect all the taxes it generates, and they will fund the common state expenses. The rest will be used to finance our powers: those that are uniform, the same as any other region, and those that aren't, those that we have specifically and that constitute our uniqueness.

"I want to underline Vice President Montero's role. We are here because of her conviction."

Well, having read the agreement... it reminds us of the previous negotiation, the one in 2009. The aspiration was one thing, and what was ultimately agreed upon was another.

There are differences. Among other things, because the work we are doing between the Ministry of Finance and the department is closely aligned. There is a basic architecture that is very important to us and that the Government of Spain will respect in the model it must submit to multilateral negotiation. For that reason, we have been very cautious when writing it. I think we have all been evolving and moving toward a financing model with a federal vision. And I want to underline the role of Vice President María Jesús Montero in this. We are here because of her work and her conviction.

Between the most pessimistic scenario, which estimates a revenue increase of 600 million for Catalonia, and the most optimistic, which suggests 25 billion resulting from the direct application of the Basque quota, what is your estimate?

We have the political framework. We don't have the figures yet, and we'll only have them when the government tells us how much extra it's contributing to the system. Until then, it's impossible to know how much extra Catalonia is entitled to. In 2009, it injected €12.5 billion into the system as a whole. If you update this figure based on the cumulative CPI for the past sixteen years, it would be around €18 billion. Taking these figures into account, a reasonable €20 billion would be appropriate for the system as a whole, which would allow for equalization between the regions while respecting the principle of ordinality. To this must be added the debt relief for all the regions.

“There must be equality in public services, but there must also be differences.”

You created a team that was supposed to calculate that figure.

They will submit their report in September. They are seven experts from various regions, including Madrid, the Basque Country, Valencia, and Catalonia. We've put them to work to reach a common understanding of how solidarity is quantified, which services are homogeneous, and so on.

Tell us, why should a citizen of Vilanova del Camí, a municipality on the outskirts of Igualada with an income below the Catalan average, show solidarity with Andalusia or Extremadura?

Because we are part of a composite state, and economic inequality doesn't work. Societies must be as unequal as possible for the economy to function well. It's no use having a very powerful territory like Catalonia if you then have a poor Spain. This generates inefficiencies. Catalonia wants to lead the economy, but things also need to happen in Spain: people need to be educated, opportunities and industries need to be created... And secondly, we need to get everyone's accounts straight. Under the current system, Extremadura receives €1,000 more per inhabitant than Murcia. Why?

And why should a citizen of Campillo del Río, very close to Linares, in Jaén, accept that Catalans enjoy the principle of ordinality?

Because it's fair. The greater the tax effort and per capita income, the more you can contribute, but this citizen of Linares also won't find it logical that a Catalan receives less when he contributes the most. That's ordinality. A total leveling [of the income received by each autonomous region] can also discourage effort. It's about maintaining a certain balance, a certain equality in basic public services, but there must also be differences.

"What Madrid or Andalusia are doing—lowering taxes for the rich—they won't be able to do."

However, you are in favor of establishing a minimum fiscal effort.

This is reflected in the agreement. The new model should establish a tax floor. What Madrid and Andalusia have done, lowering taxes for the rich, they won't be able to do. If you lower taxes, you harm public services, so a floor is set so that we are all able to generate a minimum income.

In the case of Catalonia, the desire to collect all taxes requires strengthening the Catalan administration in terms of resources, knowledge, and so on.

It's a huge challenge. The Catalan Tax Agency has 850 employees and manages 5 billion euros. Managing personal income tax alone from 2026 onwards will mean managing 30 billion euros. That means many more people working and much more knowledge than we have now. And it's impossible to acquire it in such a short time. Now, the Catalan Tax Agency needs a new technological platform because neither Gaudí nor Espriu are of any use to us. Personal income tax collection will require, at least initially, collaboration with the Spanish Treasury. I'll give you an example of our situation: do you know how many IT specialists the Spanish Tax Agency has on staff? 1,500 IT specialists. Do you know how many we have in our Agency? None. This is the situation we've found ourselves in. And, for us, it's clear that if we have to do something the State did well... either we do it better or we don't do it at all. We need to go little by little, with solidity and security.

Well... at least the tax inspectors don't seem very inclined. They even doubt the constitutionality of the pact.

We're talking about a political agreement. It's not unconstitutional to modify the Legislative Assembly (LOFCA) and for the State to delegate the management of personal income tax. We'll determine the scope of this delegation. A majority is needed to achieve this, and here I also appeal to Junts, which is now talking about an economic agreement, but in its electoral program it spoke of reforming the LOFCA. I hope they'll join in. It's good to dream, but so is doing.

ERC does not seem very satisfied either.

ERC must be demanding and demand that 100% of what it signed with the PSC appear. Is it? Yes. I understand that ERC would like the ordinality to appear in the agreement and not in the preamble, but we went as far as we could go with the conviction that the Government, when it presents the model, will respect it.

Two more questions: Brussels has warned Spain about its conditions regarding BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell.

We respect what the EU says, but we believe the government has acted correctly, defending not only Sabadell as an entity but also what it represents. Conditions were only imposed; the takeover bid was not blocked.

The latest. Regional funds are being questioned in the EU budget scenario.

We hope this changes and that the regions' influence increases, because we believe we're losing strength. Negotiations are long. We're going to work on this with other regions.