The vice-president of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, has informed the Spanish Treasury minister, Cristóbal Montoro, that he will not continue sending him the weekly messages about the Catalan government's spending in which they guaranteed the Spanish Treasury they are not dedicating any money to the upcoming independence referendum. The ministry responded that the Spanish cabinet will adopt new measures tomorrow and will reply to the vice-president's letter.
Before the summer, the Spanish government warned that they would suspend payments to Catalonia from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund, the system through which they distribute money to the autonomous communities, if they detected funds being diverted to the referendum. To monitor this, they asked for the weekly reports to the Treasury from the Catalan government about their spending. They also asked for the list of civil servants of the different departments and bodies that would sign the reports. The Catalan government decided that the vice-president, who is also Catalonia's Economy and Treasury minister, would assume this responsibility personally. Today, Catalan public broadcaster TV3 revealed that Junqueras has announced the end of these messages.
In the letter (above) dated yesterday that Junqueras sent to Montoro, the vice-president says that the weekly checks established by the Economic Affairs Commission are incompatible with the new situation in Catalonia since the Referendum Law was passed by the Catalan Parliament last week. He explains that this is because "it implies a political control that has no relationship with the objectives of budgetary stability nor with the aims of the state legislation on this matter".
“For this reason, the [Catalan] Government has adopted a new agreement through which it exempts itself and excuses the relevant officials from sending the information required by the Commission's agreement," he writes.
Despite everything, Junqueras highlights that the Catalan government's wish is to continue committing itself to dialogue and the exercising of democracy “as a way of solving the debate about the political relationships between Catalonia and Spain”.
Agreement proposal still stands
“So far it has not been possible to reach an agreement with the Government of the [Spanish state about the celebration of a referendum over the political future of Catalonia, despite the repeated proposals and requests formulated by the [Catalan] Government and the Parliament. It is unnecessary to reiterate that the proposal still stands,” he added.
The vice-president ends the letter saying that, despite their political disagreements, they share the wish to collaborate in all aspects related to the financial and budgetary stability of Catalonia and Spain, in agreement with their EU commitments.