The Spanish Government imposes on the Generalitat new access conditions to the Autonomic Liquidity Fund
The Generalitat of Catalonia considers that the State Government infringes the principles of financial autonomy and equality provided respectively in articles 156.1 and 139.1 of the Spanish Constitution.
Last 20 November, the Delegate Commission on Economic Affairs of the Spanish Government established a series of new conditions for the Generalitat of Catalonia to continue having access to the FLA (Autonomic Liquidity Fund). The FLA is a device for the provision of liquidity created by the Spanish Government in 2012 to address the financial needs of those communities which as a result of the debt crisis encountered difficulties in entering the financial markets.
To date, the regulations of the fund had been applied equally across all the autonomous communities, but the agreement of the Delegate Commission on Economic Affairs -published on 21 November in the Official State Gazette- imposed on Catalonia access conditions to the FLA different to those required of the other autonomous communities. Moreover, the motivation for the new moves expressed in the text of the formal agreement of the Delegate Commission included considerations of an explicitly political nature.
For the Government of the Generalitat, these new conditions infringe the principle of financial autonomy provided in article 156.1 of the Spanish Constitution and also article 139.1, which provides that all Spaniards have the same rights and obligations in any part of State territory independently of how they choose to vote. It is for this reason that the Government of the Generalitat plans to lodge a legal appeal against the agreement of the Delegate Commission.
The chief aspects of the new conditions imposed on the Generalitat of Catalonia are:
- Payment priorities fixed by the Central Government
- The Spanish Government also sets priorities for payments made using the ordinary resources of the financing model. With these new conditions the State controls most of the Generalitat's expenditure.
- The decision on if a particular invoice is paid or not rests in the hands of the Central Government
- Multiplication of administrative procedures. The Generalitat is forced to provide a large volume of documents. In all, in December the Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge has sent the Spanish Government up to 283,000 documents relating to FLA payments.
- Compulsory connection with the FACE (General Point of Entry of eBilling). The Generalitat must connect its accounting records with the State.
- Certificates of the General Comptroller. An initial certificate on the financial situation of the Generalitat is required and also a monthly certificate of all budget use of the Generalitat and its companies and agencies. It should be remembered that since 2013 the Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge has sent detailed information on its accounts to the State on a monthly basis.
Source: ACN
