Intense clash at the Cambra de Barcelona. The plenary session of the Barcelona business institution, scheduled for next Thursday and in which the proposal to increase the so-called silver seats from the current two to ten must be approved, is heading towards showcasing a consolidated divergence between the entity’s leadership, presided over by Josep Santacreu, and the employer organization Pimec, led by Antoni Cañete, who together with Eines de País, the pro-independence list defeated in the last chamber elections, will call to vote against it. The major employer organization Foment will vote in favor. A serious rift in the Catalan economic world.
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1The executive committee of the Cambra approved last week the proposal to increase in the next elections the representation of large companies through those ten seats in exchange for an annual payment of 75,000 euros. In recent days, more or less formal exchanges have taken place, depending on the source consulted, and even a draft prepared by Santacreu’s team has circulated, committing to maintaining the influence of SMEs in the functioning of the entity. It is also noted that the proposal for ten, instead of the 14 allowed by law, is already a sign of dialogue. Eloi Planes (Fluidra), vice president of the Cambra, and Emili Rousaud (Factorenergia), from Pimec’s executive, have participated in these exchanges.
The executive committee of the Cambra approved last week the proposal to increase in the next elections the representation of large companies through those ten seats in exchange for an annual payment of 75,000 euros. In recent days, more or less formal exchanges have taken place, depending on the source consulted, and even a draft prepared by Santacreu’s team has circulated, committing to maintaining the influence of SMEs in the functioning of the entity. It is also noted that the proposal for ten, instead of the 14 allowed by law, is already a sign of dialogue. Eloi Planes (Fluidra), vice president of the Cambra, and Emili Rousaud (Factorenergia), from Pimec’s executive, have participated in these exchanges.
Although sources from the Cambra maintain that the possibilities for agreement are still open, Pimec denies that “sending a draft implies having reached an agreement.” They assure that their members in the plenary will vote on each item according to their own criteria, which coincides with the rejection of the entity led by Cañete.
Santacreu’s team defends the need for larger companies to be better represented, in line with their weight in the city’s economy, in the plenary of the chamber institution. This body has 60 members, six proposed by Foment and Pimec, two silver seats (Criteria and the RACC), and the rest are elected by voting in guild categories. In the current plenary, the weight of large companies barely reaches 15%, with many very significant names outside it.
With the new proposal, which would be applied in next year’s elections, that weight would rise to around 35%. Its promoters argue that the legislator already took into account the tendency to underrepresentation when creating the silver seats. And what is now being done is to use it. Barcelona’s is the only one among the major Spanish and Catalan chambers that barely applies it.
El Cercle seeks venue
2El Cercle d’Economia is looking for an alternative venue for its Annual Meeting. The socio-economic forum, presided over by Teresa Garcia-Milà, aims to find a location for its most relevant and emblematic activity with the goal of reducing its cost and the intention to “reach a stable and long-term agreement,” according to sources from the entity consulted by this newspaper.
