The executive branch is in a hurry to approve these new budgets. On the one hand, because those in force are an extension of the PGE for the year 2023, since the project was not continued for the one for the year 2024. Likewise, they would be the first to be approved with the return of European tax ruleswhich were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Junts and PP delay budget preparation
The odyssey to have the PGE ready began a month ago, when the Ministry of Finance published in the Official Gazette (BOE) the corresponding ministerial decree to start drawing up the accounts. It sets the priorities to be followed to design the policies and actions during the year 2025. In this way, these lines are The various portfolios and public organisations must take this into account. when communicating your specific needs to the said department. The Ministry of Finance analyzes all of these one by one and prepares the expenditure and revenue programs.
Of course, the executive branch must update and follow a series of different procedures so that these budgets can be drawn up correctly. For example, the growth forecasts of the macroeconomic variables must be updated, the spending capacity for that year must be determined and the deficit and government debt targets for the next three years must be set, the so-called stability path. The purpose of the latter is to indicate how much corresponds to the different government administrations. That is to say, to the central state, to autonomy, to the municipal councils and to social security. So there is a search for guaranteeing the reducing budgetary imbalances.
Of the procedures indicated, only the path to stability must be approved by the Congress of Deputiesalthough the government has the duty to also inform the House of Representatives of the expenditure ceiling, as laid down in the Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability Act. However, the latest attempts by the executive branch to approve this have fallen on deaf ears in Congress. In the case of Tuesday, July 23, the refusal of PP and Junts has nullified the objectives set by the Executive.
In the case of the Independence Party, negotiations have been more tense as a result of the talks being held by the PSC and the ERC, so that Salvador Illa is appointed president of the GeneralitatThe party announced that its seven deputies would vote against the proposal on the same day of the plenary session, just after Montero had announced the objectives on the podium. This has thus been the final blow against the path of stability, together with the refusal of both the PP and Vox.
If this procedure is not approved again by the House of Representatives, the budgets can move forward. Of course, the objectives to be applied would be those of the PGE currently in force, that is to say those of the year 2023 that have been extended for the year 2024.
Senate loses veto over deficit targets
However, a victory that the Ministry of Finance has already achieved is that the Congress of Deputies has agreed to remove the Senate's right to veto the deficit and debt targets. This was done through an amendment to the parity law that was approved during that same plenary session. In this way, the government has avoided the possibility that the PP, which has an absolute majority in the Chamber of Territorial Representation, go away and postpone budgetingThis was done in the two previous attempts to draw up the PGE stability path for 2024, which were ultimately not completed.
