On June 17, 2021, Andalusian President Juanma Moreno and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez held their first meeting in Moncloa. A priority issue is on the table: the underfinancing of the autonomous community resulting from the 2009 system, which then represented a cumulative deficit of 12.563 million euros. To find a solution, the Andalusian demand was the creation of a bilateral commission as provided for in the reform of the Autonomy Status of 2007 to address a new financing framework and under the same conditions as Catalonia. Three years later, the two leaders held their third meeting on Friday, September 20. And the underlying problem remains the same: regional financing. Although, yes, the circumstances have changed: the accumulated deficit is already estimated at 20 billion euros (about 1.5 billion per year), there is a concrete proposal to compensate for it through a leveling fund and now the bilateral path according to which the Statute is not an option. Quite the opposite. After the conflict generated by the agreements between the PSC and the ERC in Catalonia, the Andalusian demand is that there be no bilateral pacts. Any agreement must go through a multilateral body and be the same for all the autonomous communities.
The agreements reached for the investitures of Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa completely condition this third meeting, the first of the legislature, delayed by almost two years since the elections that gave Juanma Moreno absolute majority. So much so that the starting point is that there can be no agreement on improving regional financing that can come out of this table. This has been formally approved by the Government Council and this is how the Andalusian president has committed himself to the rest of the PP barons. The bilateral path, which in 2021 was a requirement, is no longer an option in the current circumstances: the priority is to reach an agreement to achieve “fair and equal financing for all and regain institutional normality through the convening of the Conference of Presidents that has been pending since December 2023” and whose delay has even been the subject of an appeal before the Contentious Administrative Court.
However, in terms of financing, there are key elements that will be addressed at the meeting even if they do not result in specific agreements: the aforementioned levelling fund, the consequences of the agreement between PSC and ERC for Catalonia, the possible debt forgiveness which for Andalusia would represent more than 16 billion euros; the approval of the deficit path that hangs 400 million euros from next year’s regional budgets or the transfer of new powers such as the railway network that would increase the levels of government autonomy. “We want the best for Catalonia, but the same for Andalusia,” said Andalusian President Juanma Moreno on Wednesday. All these issues are on the negotiating table with the Generalitat now chaired by Salvador Illa.
But beyond financing, Juanma Moreno’s agenda of demands to the government of Pedro Sánchez is vast, since in 2018 they began a complex coexistence with an environment that has become scarcer and more tense over the years, and the increase in political noise at the national level. In 2021, the complaints book It consisted of 68 points from all areas with a strong presence of post-pandemic measures, still very present at that time. A year later, at the second meeting, the file of “grievances” was increased to 86 measures. By 2024, the list will expand to about a hundred measures, many of which will be repeated.
In both documents it is easy to find references to some of the priorities that will be on the table today. The diagnosis of railway infrastructure is also similar despite the passage of time. “The railway network has deficiencies. It is necessary to avoid service cuts and to carry out a review of the Andalusian railway map and its connection with the rest of the peninsula, prioritizing the promotion of the Mediterranean corridor. This reference appears in the 2021 document, in the 2022 document and now in the 2024 document. The difference, however, is that at that time it was expected that the government would have budgets every year. However, the inertia is the opposite. This year there have been no state accounts and it is expected that there will be none in 2025, unless there is an unexpected reversal of the dynamics of Congress (never excluded). Therefore, beyond planning (such as the reactivation of the Seville-Huelva axis or the Costa del Sol corridor) and commitments to improve management, it will be difficult to materialize autonomous requests.
There are more opportunities for progress in other areas. In 2021 and 2022, there was already talk of drought. And agreements were requested for the unblocking of the Alcolea dam or for the construction of desalination plants in eastern Andalusia. The water reserves were therefore almost 9 points higher than those currently available in the Andalusian reservoirs. Progress has been made in these infrastructures, there is dialogue, even an already approved planning of state investments in desalination in the autonomous community that amounts to 700 million euros through Acuamed. But the projects are still not a reality. And today, they are once again a priority in the face of a possible worsening of the reserves that leaves Andalusia in a situation similar to the one it experienced in the spring of this year. In this case, the funds are European or are already guaranteed without depending on the state budget.
The third priority is more blocked. It has already appeared in 2021 and 2022: the disagreement of Andalusia with the investment plan of Red Eléctrica de España in Andalusia. In 2021, the Commission complained that only 526 million had been allocated to it and 780 million had been claimed (the equivalent of the weight of the Andalusian population). The distribution of Andalusia’s interests is not only not improving, but is getting worse. In 2023, a revision of the plan was established that includes an additional 489 million euros, of which only 7.2 have been allocated to Andalusia. The regional government is claiming a battery of projects that it considers essential for the development of strategic investments.
In addition to these priorities, other pending issues remain on the table, in which the positions of Andalusia and the Spanish government have distanced themselves in recent years or have changed the context. In 2021, the Juanma Moreno’s diary immigration and the need for resources for the care of minors. Today we are immersed in a migration crisis and in a process of reform of the immigration law in which Andalusia can play a fundamental role.
Furthermore, as expressed in recent days by the government spokesperson, Carolina España, and the Minister of Employment, Rocío Blanco, there are demands for these measures to be implemented. more funds for the unemployedthat the contribution for dependency be increased or that solutions be sought on points of disagreement such as the one that led the Ministry of Educational Development to return 119 million euros of European funds for free education from zero to three years and that resources must now be sought to be able to implement it. Even the future of Gibraltar after Brexit, which faces a new attempt at an agreement, has been on the table for five years without the positions having come closer to the point that the Council continues to demand a position to have information on the negotiations that For the moment, this is not granted.
Despite a busy agenda, the position of the Andalusian Government is “distrust and low expectations.” Unlike other episodes in which the Council has sought to reach an agreement, as was the case with Doñana or the drought, in this case there is a predisposition to disagreement given the context and the climate of tension caused by agreements such as the amnesty law or the single framework financing for Catalonia. Juanma Moreno is accompanied by the Minister of the Presidency, the Interior and Social Dialogue, Antonio Sanz. Alongside Pedro Sánchez, he will be Minister of Territorial Policy, Angel Victor Torreswith extensive experience at the regional level as former president of the Canary Islands and as an interlocutor with the communities. Andalusia will be the third in this series of meetings after the Basque Country and Galicia, which will have their appointments on the same day. They will be followed by the rest of the leaders who decide to attend (some like Isabel Díaz Ayuso have a position opposed to these meetings), respecting as much as possible the order of approval of the statutes of autonomy.
On the other hand, opposition groups are demanding a change of position and a willingness for dialogue from the Andalusian government. PSOE-A or for Andalusia They demanded that it use the bilateral route provided for in the Statute of Autonomy for financing and for greater autonomy and that Andalusia put on the table a proposal to improve financing that would allow it to take advantage of the route opened by Catalonia with its agreement for a single framework.
The Andalusian president will also take advantage of the meeting to strengthen his position in the face of the latest controversies facing the Spanish government and the regional executive regarding health, education, tax policy or implementation of European funds and to deny the statements made by the Executive in recent weeks (such as the case of the renunciation of funds for free education from 0 to 3 years) that the Council considers “inaccurate”.
