Madrid gloats over Catalonia’s compliance with financial intervention, will pay part of FLA today
The Spanish government will send €110 million to pay pharmacies, promises to send the rest of the money if the Generalitat "continues to comply with the conditions"
On Friday there was a smile of satisfaction on the face of Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the Vice President and spokesperson for the Spanish government, when she was asked about the takeover of Catalonia's finances. Sáenz was ready with her announcement: "Catalonia has begun to meet the conditions set to receive the ordinary Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA in Spanish)", she said during a press conference after the cabinet meeting.
According to the Spanish government, the Generalitat has already approached the Spanish Treasury to join the system of electronic invoices, the telematic connection with the State, one of the mainstays of the financial takeover announced by Madrid last week.
This means that Catalonia will receive up to €319.3 million, of which €200 million are to pay down Catalan debt and €110 million largely to pay pharmacies. Specifically, Sáenz de Santamaría said that €101.12 million is for agreements with pharmacies that "will be paid directly, today", whereas €7.1 million is for healthcare agreements.
This is part of the FLA forecast for November, and which will be transferred on Friday to all the regional governments that benefit from the scheme. It amounts to €874.19 million, of which more than a third is earmarked for Catalonia.
A small part of pending funds
Broadly speaking, the Spanish government is only paying, for now, a fraction of the outstanding amount from the FLA: the payment that is due in November. On the one hand, it solves the most controversial problem, that of the pharmacies -- which has been the norm throughout this term--, and on the other hand, it ensures that Catalonia pays the interest on the debt that the State itself is charging.
What remains is for Madrid to pay out the extraordinary FLA, which Catalonia’s acting Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell has said he will beg for "on his knees", if necessary. “There is no need for athletics", said Sáenz de Santamaría when asked about this money (1).
Catalonia has asked for an additional €3.034 billion, which will be subject to special vigilance from the Spanish government. To receive the funds "they only need to meet the conditions set", noted Sáenz de Santamaría, who assured that the only thing the State wants is "respect for the law" and "compliance with what is imposed".
Mas complains about having to “beg for a handout"
Artur Mas, acting President of the Generalitat, called it "shameful" that Catalonia has to “beg for a handout to make ends meet" so that the Spanish government "returns as a loan" the money needed to finance an "underfunded" public system. "It appears that we have to beg for a handout at the end of every month to finance a system that our nation, as it is, is perfectly capable of supporting and improving", he lamented during a speech to review the Generalitat's 2011-2015 healthcare plan.
Last Friday, Madrid imposed special oversight conditions in order to receive the extraordinary FLA, which —indirectly— also affect the ordinary FLA to be be paid today at last.
_________
(1) N.T. Catalan Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell had also recently stated that he was prepared to run a 100-meter dash, if it meant that Spain would eventually pay the FLA.
