ERC finalizes with the Government and the State that Catalonia assumes the majority of the governance of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB). The proposal from the republicans is that the Generalitat of Catalonia holds 40% of this body and that the Barcelona City Council obtains 15%, leaving 45% in the hands of the State, according to La Vanguardia. This is the third pillar of the extra-budgetary agreement between socialists and Oriol Junqueras’ party that is supposed to be the landing strip to seal the Generalitat’s budgets, if nothing goes wrong, this Tuesday.
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Created in 1916, it is currently governed exclusively by the State. The entity has been chaired by Pere Navarro since 2018. Until now, the Generalitat and the City Council had institutional representation. Now they will be able to have the majority of the representation. This will be one of the commitments likely to come out of the bilateral meeting between the State and the Generalitat, which will take place on Wednesday in Madrid. In that same meeting, the promotion of the orbital railway line and the commercial company, the other two lines demanded by ERC to agree on the budgets, will be specified.
The republicans defend the assumption of the majority governance of the CZFB as a “gain of sovereignty.” Throughout the negotiation, they have sought to achieve changes in some of the areas in which the State has exclusive competence, and finally the agreement reached concerns this consortium.
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Sources from Esquerra highlight the importance of this pact because the Consorci de la Zona Franca is “the most powerful public economic instrument currently existing in Barcelona outside the Generalitat, together with the Port and the Airport.” They emphasize that its governance is “very sensitive” because “it controls a very relevant part of the future industrial capacity of Catalonia and Barcelona.” In fact, its capacity represents 3.8% of the total Catalan GDP.
Thus, with an agreement on track for the Catalan side to control the majority of the CZFB, the leadership is preparing to present these pacts this Monday before the party’s national council – the highest body between congresses – to give their approval to these points, which would allow the first budgets in Catalonia since 2023.
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