An agreement to push forward the budgets
The budget agreement between the Government and the PSC that the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, will sign this afternoon establishes that the Catalan socialists undertake not to block amendments to the accounts that are agreed upon with other parliamentary groups, such as the common ones, and that are necessary to push forward the budgets. Likewise, the agreement does not mention the Hard Rock, the Vila-seca macro project that has complicated the tripartite negotiations in recent weeks, and the two parties also agree to set up a commission to monitor the application, which will meet quarterly and will be made up of three representatives of the Executive and three representatives of the Catalan Socialists.
The priority axes of the budgets
The agreement sets four priority areas: education, housing, security and the fight against drought. Thus, 7,435 million euros will be allocated to the Department of Education, which will mean a 10% increase in the budget compared to the year 2023. Of this total, 50 million will be set aside to deploy educational improvements for the school year 2024-2025 that are provided for in the conclusions of the Educational Improvement Impulse Group and the resources for inclusive education will be increased by 35 million euros. With this budget, actions will be carried out such as increasing the funding of public and private nursery schools, equating charter school staff with public school staff and to deal with a shock plan for the air conditioning of 100 educational centers, among others.
An investment of 144 million is also contemplated for primary care, and in total, the health budget is increased by 25% with the aim of identifying and evaluating measures that allow health expenditure to be reordered through an improvement in management. Executive and PSC have committed to consolidating the 110 million euros to deal with waiting lists and continue to improve accessibility to the system, destined mostly to the field of primary care and community health and to ‘hospital area, but also part of the Care Plan in the residential area.
Measures against drought
The executive and the PSC made public this Tuesday the agreement for the 2024 accounts, which also includes items for the drought with an item of more than 1,000 million. In this sense, they are committed to allocating 120 million euros for aid to councils. On the other hand, 86.3 million euros will be allocated during 2024 to irrigation improvements, as part of the deployment of the Plan for irrigation improvements 2023-2030, endowed with a total of more than 1,000 million euros, and which also include installations of photovoltaic panels in the irrigation communities.
It is also agreed to carry out a series of actions in the territory to improve the water supply networks and the upstream water supply infrastructure works will be carried out, necessary for the connection of Vallirana in the ATLL network, and the improvement works in the water supply pipes of Cervelló.
Measures to improve access to housing
On the other hand, during the year 2024, around 4,000 new homes will be added to the social rental park in Catalonia, with the aim of reaching 10,000 new homes between 2023 and 2026.
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