A first step. Catalonia and Aragon have reached a "technical agreement" for a joint bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics, as reported by La Vanguardia and confirmed by government sources to ElNacional.cat. The technical commissions of the Catalan Generalitat and the Aragonese executive have reached an agreement that the two administrations will ratify in the coming days. They will then present the project to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which may require changes. This "technical" agreement is prior to the political one, which will have to be finalized soon. According to the current agreement, Catalonia will host the ski mountaineering events (at La Ribagorça and Pallars Jussà, predictably at Boí Taüll ski station), ice hockey (in Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi), alpine, downhill and slalom events (La Molina-Masella ) and both snowboard and freestyle (Baqueira Beret). Meanwhile, Aragon will provide venues for biathlon and cross-country skiing, figure skating, speed skating (Zaragoza) and curling (Jaca). Finally, it remains to be decided where bobsleigh, skeleton and luge will be held - and they are expected to be outside Spain (Milan, Sarajevo and Albertville).
While the agreement revolves around the Olympic disciplines that each territory would host, issues related to the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2030 Winter Games will still need to be discussed. As well, the candidacy does not yet have a name - an element that is basic for the political agreement that will have to ensure that the plan goes forward. In any case, the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) will send a letter on Monday with all the information to the Catalan and Aragonese executives and the Spanish government. Once the three institutions have ratified the technical agreement, it will be forwarded to the IOC, which will give the green light to the joint candidacy.
Aragon denies any agreement
Once the news broke, the government of Aragon clarified that no agreement had been reached with the Generalitat of Catalonia for the presentation of a joint candidacy to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in the Pyrenees. Sources from the Aragonese executive have remarked that they will only accept the project on equal terms between the two territories. "There is no guarantee that the candidacy will be presented in equal terms and in a balanced way in all aspects. If all aspects of the candidacy are not clear, Aragon will not give its approval. Distrust between the interlocutors is absolute", said the sources quoted by the agency Europa Press.
On the other hand, the Catalan Socialists have celebrated the technical agreement. "These are projects that unite people, and the Pyrenees can be seen as a border, but they will be like a place of coming together and of brotherhood," said the Spanish minister of culture, Miquel Iceta. At the same time, Barcelona's first deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni, stated that the city "deserves" the Games. He added that Catalonia "needs" them, for "solidarity" with the Pyrenees, and to "provide content" to the discourse on territorial balance and cohesion.
The optimism of the COE
The apparent agreement comes after the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco, today reached agreement with the two executives to mount the bod for the 2030 Winter Olympics. "We have overcome the difficulties and once we take the step, next week, this candidacy will be unstoppable ", proclaimed Blanco in his speech at a conference organized by the PSC on the Olympic project.
After this pact, in Catalonia there is still a question to be resolved. This is the consultation that the Catalan government wants to organize on the holding of the event, which for now excludes Ripollès, Berguedà and Solsonès. After the Junts party changed its mind and decided to support the extension of the referendum to all these territories, the Catalan presidency minister, Laura Vilagrà (ERC), left the door open to their inclusion. "All scenarios will be assessed and discussed at the government level," Vilagrà said on Tuesday after a meeting with the mayors of the Ripollès county, who have also kept alive the hope of participating in the consultation. "We made a decision according to certain parameters and now we have to see how it is articulated, we have to study it," she added.