On 10 May 2021, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Economic Agreement Law of 13 May 1981, and in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis of that has exerted an intense pressure on the global public finances, including the provincial treasuries, the Documentation and Research Centre of the Economic Agreement, Ituna, and the Association for the promotion and dissemination of the Economic Agreement Ad Concordiam organised the IX Conference “Public finances and debt sustainability”.

The ninth edition of the Ituna conference was opened by the director of the project and professor of the Department of Contemporary History of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, who reviewed the history of public debt between 1795 and 1936. Gemma Martínez, Head of the Fiscal Policy Service of the Provincial Treasury of Bizkaia and Member of the Board of Directors of Ad Concordiam, then emphasised the asymmetrical effect that the fiscal crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the provincial administrations in contrast to those of the common regime.

The invited presentations began with the following speakers:

• Javier Pérez (Banco de España), who presented “The European framework for budgetary stability and financial sustainability”.
• Secondly, Diego Lopez (Pablo de Olavide University) presented “The design of fiscal rules in sub-central governments. The case of Spain”.
• Next, it was the turn of Enrique Lucas (University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU), who spoke on “Sustainability of public debt. The case of the Provincial Treasuries
• The Deputy Minister of Finance of the Basque Government, Itziar Agirre, delved into the bilateral negotiations on budgetary stability and fiscal sustainability in a presentation entitled “Economic Agreement: present and future of coordination and collaboration with the State on budgetary stability”.
• The day ended with a round table moderated by Sofía Arana, lecturer in the Department of Public Law of the UPV/EHU.