The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, formed this Wednesday in Madrid – with a few weeks of delay due to the priority given to the management of the floods in Valencia at the end of October – the new commission bilateral cooperation to expedite the pending transfers of the 1979 Statute, which the Basque party quantifies at 29. In reality, it was a body planned since 1987 that had never been activated, not even the last legislature when Iñigo Urkullu put it on the table. There is consensus that all transfers, including the economic management of Social Security, will be completed within approximately one year. As a wink, Pradales will return to Vitoria with two agreements already closed in his bag, the management of the coastline and the film support fund.
The intention is that in the coming weeks, on December 16, the body legally competent to sign the transfers, known as the mixed commission, will meet and that the State will now transfer these first two matters. In the first case, it is an issue that is also negotiated with Galicia, not without controversy. Euskadi aspires to manage authorizations of all types on beaches, pontoons or anchorage areas, such as hospitality establishments or beach bars, for example. But the possibility of creating bike lanes or contributing to the energy transition with new infrastructure on the coast, including wind turbines, has also been highlighted. Regarding the film support fund, it is a state item that in 2016 reached 60 million. The Economic Agreement regime now means that the autonomous community assumes the equivalent of 6.24% of that money to exercise these powers, which will complement others already exercised by the Basque Government in the cultural field. “It is the last piece of the puzzle,” said the Lehendakari, who believes that it will allow special support for audiovisual production in Basque. It so happens that only a few weeks ago a tax agreement was reached that will also allow Euskadi to improve incentives to attract filming.
The Pradales Government also wants to close another half dozen matters that are already very advanced in 2024. Maritime Rescue is on that list as the most relevant matter. It would be about the regional Executive assuming the functions and means of the Sasemar entity, including a base in Bilbao, boats, tugboats or even a helicopter that operates on the Basque coast although it has its heliport in Santander. Meteorology is also on the table. Euskadi has already created its own agency parallel to Aemet, which is called Euskalmet. But it would be necessary to agree on either the transfer of the current State resources or a compensatory financial allocation, according to the working documents handled by the Basque party.
Pradales has given much importance to the issue of migration policies. A minor transfer was already made a few months ago and now the new Basque Government demands a change in the immigration regulations and new functions in work authorizations and integration. He also wants an “orderly” distribution of arrivals – Pradales is especially concerned about the “imbalance” with minors – and that the situation of Euskadi as a “northern border” be taken into consideration. In Irún-Hendaya there have been rapid returns in recent years, as well as deaths of migrants in transit.
By 2025 the most sensitive points would remain. This includes Social Security, a matter never before transferred to an autonomous community and which still today raises doubts in certain political sectors due to the supposed rupture of the single fund, something expressly prohibited in the Statute itself. Euskadi estimates the pension spending that it could manage at 12,000 million, although the amounts and legislation would remain in the hands of the State.
Associated with this competition are passive employment policies (unemployment benefits) and the expansion of the capabilities of the Basque Labor Inspection, which now coexists with the state one. The PNV also wants ports and airports of general interest, but here the PSE-EE, a partner in Euskadi and which directs Transport, has turned its nose up. The lower category seaports are already under autonomous management and the Basque Government has had the capacity to appoint its trusted people to those of the State, many of them former officials of the PNV. The Constitution protects that infrastructures of general interest are not transferred and there are voices that warn that they could only be transferred if they are previously degraded, which would hamper their competitiveness. The same happens with Aena airports. In Catalonia it went to a framework of two networks but the main one, that of Josep Tarradellas-El Prat, continues in the hands of the State.
This Wednesday was the third meeting between Sánchez and Pradales in less than six months. First the president visited Ajuria Enea – he is only the third to do so – and then there was a second meeting in Madrid within the framework of the round of the head of the Executive with all the regional leaders. Basque sources do not deny that they have found a certain harmony during this time. With Urkullu Sánchez he was more reluctant to meet and did not even respond to his letters. The bilateral commission model seeks to be a permanent work space between the central and Basque governments. It is also hoped that it will be the forum in which possible conflicts of jurisdiction are resolved to avoid the litigation of the past before the Constitutional Court.
The commission as such began at 5:30 p.m. but a few minutes before Sánchez and Pradales were able to leave alone. Afterwards, both teams have joined, led by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres on one side and Counselor María Ubarretxena on the other. Also representing the Spanish Government were the Secretaries of State Arcadi España, of Territorial Policy, Pilar Cancela, of Migration, Fernando Mariano Sampedro, of the European Union, and other senior officials. With Pradales and Ubarretxena have been the Vice President and Minister of Culture, Ibone Bengoetxea, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Mikel Iriondo, and the Director of Self-Government, Begoña Pérez de Eulate, among others. At 7:30 p.m. the hearings had not yet begun. However, while he was meeting with the president, a message was published in his name on the social network X commenting on the withdrawal of Benito Lertxundi’s music, which was later deleted.
Pradales, in his appearance before the media, which began in Basque, also announced other commitments outside of the statutory ones. He has announced, for example, a summit between France, Spain and Portugal that will take place in Bilbao “at the beginning of 2025” or that he aspires to take the definitive step to create an Atlantic macro-region in April. Spain has also committed to lobbying with Ireland and other countries to promote this project under the current presidency of Poland, which according to Pradales would already be in favor of creating macro-regions. Likewise, Pradales says he has the “commitment” of the State to promote the official status of Basque in European institutions. “We will be demanding,” Pradales said about the pacts.
On the other hand, the Lehendakari has assured that he intends to travel to Santander on December 13 for the conference of regional presidents called by Sánchez. He has indicated that he likes to be in all the forums in which he can represent the interests of Euskadi. Of course, he has warned that that same day has an agenda in Vitoria, the last control session of the Basque Parliament in 2024. He has hoped to be able to fit schedules.
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