Catalan financing picks up pace with the announcement of the bilateral agreement on July 14

There has been so much commotion within the PSOE in recent weeks, especially in the wake of the Santos Cerdán case, that individual financing has been relegated to the background—or even beyond—in the order of priorities of the government and the PSOE. But after the uproar over the alleged commissions charged for public works by the former secretary of organization of the Socialists, work on the new financing system has been revitalized after it was announced yesterday that the Spanish and Catalan governments will meet in the bilateral commission between the State and the Generalitat (Catalan Autonomous Community) on July 14 in Barcelona, ​​at 12 noon.

They have been publicly revived, as sources from Salvador Illa's administration and the ERC party assert that negotiations have never been halted despite everything. The Socialists also deny that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, ever abandoned this role due to her status as the PSOE-A candidate for the presidency of Andalusia, as ERC had suggested.

Junqueras gives the Socialists a boost by prioritizing content over deadlines.

What's more, they confirm that the meetings have intensified. While until recently there had been meetings every two weeks between ERC, the Generalitat (Catalan Left), and technical staff from Montero's Finance Ministry team, in recent days the three-way meetings have intensified to the point of becoming daily, with the presence of the minister herself, the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, and the Director General of ERC, Lluís Salvadó.

Sources indicate that all parties want to preserve the negotiations for the new financing system. The test would be this bilateral meeting between the Spanish and Catalan governments on July 14, even though it was convened without the Republicans' approval of the financing.

Montero, the councilors Dalmau and Romero, and the republican Salvadó have recently met daily.

This commission has been delayed. Formally, the ERC-PSC pact to appoint Illa established June 30 as the deadline for submitting a funding proposal. The bilateral agreement was supposed to serve as certification.

In any case, Oriol Junqueras gave the Socialists a boost yesterday, and in a speech during the ERC national council meeting held this morning in Bellpuig de Urgell, he asserted that in order to have a good financing agreement, good content is essential. "If the PSOE (...) needs a few more weeks, let them take them, but let them not pretend that the agreement is not what Catalonia needs," he said.

Illa's government assumes that more meetings will be held after the summer, to address, above all, the collection of personal income tax.

Furthermore, if the Socialists' announcement of the date had any intention of urging ERC to compromise and accept what has been proposed so far for the new financing, Junqueras shook off all pressure: "Regardless of when they meet, the agreement must be useful" for Catalonia.

These are two statements he accompanied with the following: "We're taking advantage of the fact that we know the PSOE won't meet a deadline it itself helped set to remind everyone that the most important thing is the content, and until that happens, we won't be able to reach other significant agreements with the PSOE." It's a direct warning to Pedro Sánchez: if there's no specific funding, the ERC won't support a general state budget that the government needs like water.

The negotiations are seeking mechanisms to prevent the pact with Catalonia from putting pressure on other communities.

In any case, financing is once again a topic of public debate. Government sources affirm that the bilateral meeting aims to "move toward an agreement on financing and tax management." If we talk about "moving forward," it's because there are still things to be finalized, as confirmed by the ERC. The government warns that there will be more meetings after the summer holidays, probably in September, to try to finalize everything. And, above all, to ensure that the collection of personal income tax by the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) in 2026 becomes a reality.

There will be pending issues after the meeting between governments. "There is a lot of complexity," the Catalan government stated, starting with the adaptation of IT systems. And finding the necessary mechanisms to avoid stressing the agreement with Catalonia on the other autonomous communities, which will also require a new financing model.

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In fact, this last point is something that also worries the president of the ERC, even if it's for his own interests. He reiterated that Catalan financing must be structured in such a way that it is approved by a majority in the Congress of Deputies. A statement with which Junqueras implicitly also signaled an improvement in the financing system for other autonomous communities that would satisfy everyone. Be that as it may, the Republican called for "courage" from Sánchez to push through the financing despite all the noise surrounding the alleged corruption cases plaguing the PSOE.

This month has been a busy one for the government, with the credit supplements endorsed by Parliament, the agreement for the new Rodalies company, the gigafactory, and the expansion of El Prat airport. In July, the government hopes the new financing will become a reality. But first, it will need the approval of the ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party), which brought this whole issue to the table.