The Government plans to approve the Budget Law on November 9, so that they can start the parliamentary process and enter into force in early 2022. This has been announced by the spokesperson of the Government, Patrícia Plaja, during the press conference after the meeting of the Executive.

Plaja is confident that it will be possible to reach an agreement with the CUP to "move forward with progressive, transformative, social and future budgets for the Catalans".

"The negotiations are still intense, in the sense of continuous, and are expected to be even more so in the coming hours and days, as already planned", explained Plaja, who also stressed that the "priority" is to close an agreement with the CUP.

"The Govern knew that the negotiations would be complex, but we want to close an agreement and the Govern will do its part because it believes in the investiture agreement signed with the CUP", she said.

 

The Department of Health will fully manage the social and health care service

The Government has also approved today the Decree Law for the Department of Health to fully manage the social and health care service, through the Catalan Health Service, with the aim of promoting a new model of care that improves efficiency, simplification and speed in management.

Socio-health care comprises the care provided to sick people, generally of a chronic nature, and to people with disabilities who, due to their special characteristics, can benefit from the simultaneous action of health and social services that should help them to enhance their autonomy, alleviate their limitations and suffering, and facilitate their social reintegration.

"The day-to-day life of these people is complicated enough for them or their relatives and caregivers to have to face the complexities that too often involve the relationship with the Administration. This decree seeks, among other objectives, to facilitate the procedures", she explained.

The change announced today is a "historical claim" of professionals in the sector and was already on the table before the impact of Covid-19, although the pandemic has highlighted the key role of the social and healthcare field and has made the need for a rapid and efficient urgent solution.

 

National Communication Awards 2021

At today's meeting, the Government announced the winners of the 20th edition of the National Communication Awards of the Government of Catalonia. This year, the jury has decided to distinguish the program “Crims” (Crimes), from Catalunya Ràdio, in the category of Broadcasting; the program “Polònia” (Poland) from TV3 (Catalan Public Television Station) in the category of Television; the magazine “Sàpiens”, in the category of Press; the platform FILMIN, in the field of Digital Root Media, and the campaigns of the Catalan Health System during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the category of Advertising.

Cugat Mèdia received the award in the Proximity Communication category. The jury also awarded honorable mentions to the journalist Julia Otero and the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

The spokesperson Plaja stressed that, for the first time, the awards have a "equal jury" and have incorporated the order of the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, to "seek a special feminist sensibility when awarding the prizes". Plaja also announced that the Media Secretariat of the Department of the Presidency, headed by Oriol Duran, has committed to prepare with the jury and relevant people of the communication sector a new decree and new National Communication Awards for the year 2022. During the deliberation of the awards, the members of the jury raised the need to update their categories, as many of the nominations were eligible for more than one category because the current reality of the media is far from the time when the current organization of the awards was created, in 2007. The intention is to seek awards that are more faithful to the peculiarities of the different categories, to Communication in general and to the current communication map.

 

70 million extraordinary to finance the Guaranteed Income of Citizenship in view of the increase in the number of applications.

The Government has also approved a transfer of 69,741,824.37 euros to the Department of Social Rights to meet the expenditure derived from the payment of the Guaranteed Income of Citizenship (Renta Garantizada de Ciudadanía, RGC) for the last four-month period of 2021, to meet applications for the supplementary benefit of those people who do not have the minimum economic resources to meet the basic needs of a decent life.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, the social and economic situation, with a rise in unemployment data and difficulties of labor insertion, has caused an increase in the number of unemployed people, which has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of applications for the Guaranteed Income of Citizenship, with more than 60% increase in applications. These 70 million euros ensure the arrival of the GCR to those family units that require greater support and those that the Covid-19 crisis has left in a more vulnerable situation. The initial budget for 2021 was 289 million euros.

 

Participation of the Government in the World Climate Conference COP26

Finally, the spokesperson Plaja has also informed that next Sunday the president Pere Aragonès will travel to Glasgow to participate in the COP26 of the United Nations. The president will be accompanied by the Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà, and will also be attended by the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Digital Policies and Territory, Jordi Puigneró.

On the same Sunday, the president will participate in the Under 2 Coalition, one of the high-level meetings of regions organized around the summit. The Under 2 Coalition is a coalition of regional and subnational governments from around the world working to reduce CO2 emissions. Aragonès will participate in one of the event's meetings and will have several meetings.

On Monday, and already properly within the COP26, the president has planned several bilateral meetings and will also attend one of the meetings of Regions 4, the network of governments to participate in global discussions on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development.

"Environmental policies are of extreme necessity and this government is absolutely committed to the fight against climate change and to making possible the energy transition in our country towards a green, distributed and more democratic energy", said Plaja.