Yesterday, on 17 May, the Basque Economic Agreement Joint Committee met to initial the agreements between the delegations of the Basque Country and the Spanish State, and which were signed by the Spanish Minister for the Treasury and Civil Service, Cristóbal Montoro, and by the Basque Government’s Minister for the Treasury and Economy, Pedro Azpiazu, thus bringing an end to a period of financial uncertainty and discord that has affected bilateral relations over the last 10 years.
During the meeting, held at the Ministry in Calle Alcalá in Madrid, the Committee members signed the deed which contains 11 agreements, including the review of the Net Quota (which has been the aim of the Basque side) and the Updating Index (as demanded by the Spanish State), both from the 2007 baseline. Based on this agreement, the figures and amounts needed for the final settlement of the quotas from 2011 to 2015 were also approved, along with establishing the provisional quota for 2016, which is due by 30 May.
Once the discrepancies had been overcome, the committee also agreed the figures for the 2017 provisional quota, which will act as the basis for the contribution of the Basque Country to the general charges of the State during the 2017-2021 five-year period. However, the approval of the applicable methodology will be included in the new five-year act that must be passed by parliament, after being agreed in a further meeting of the Basque Economic Agreement Joint Committee to be held in July.
The meeting likewise agreed to set up a working party to analyse the tax effects of the MERCEDES BENZ, S.A change in operations. It also ratified the agreements regarding budgetary stability signed by the Spanish State General Administration and the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country regarding the latter’s deficit and debt targets.
The Basque Country was represented by Pedro Azpiazu (the Basque Government’s Minister for the Treasury and Economy), Josu Erkoreka (Minister for Public Governance and Self-Government), Ramiro González (Araba/Álava Provincial Chairman), Unai Rementeria (Bizkaia Provincial Chairman), Markel Olano (Gipuzkoa Provincial Chairman) and Juan Miguel Bilbao (the Basque Government’s Deputy Minister for the Treasury and Financial Policy). The Spanish Central Government was represented by Cristóbal Montoro (Minister for the Treasury and Civil Service), José Enrique Fernández de Moya (Secretary of State for the Treasury), Alberto Nadal (Secretary of State for Budgets and Expenditure), Roberto Bermúdez de Castro (Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations), Juan Ignacio Romero (General Secretary of Territorial Coordination) and Belén Navarro (General Secretary of Local and Regional Funding).

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