At this week's meeting of the Executive Council, two pioneering regulations have been promoted in Catalonia: the Catalan Law against racism and the Catalan Public Occupation Law. On the one hand, the Government has approved the preliminary report of the Draft Bill against racism, a norm "pioneering to address racism in all its variants, not only to combat those specific episodes suffered by groups and individuals but also a law that will address racism in a structural way, in all its forms and expressions", explained the spokesperson of the Government, Patrícia Plaja. It will deal with the different forms and expressions of racism, such as anti-Gypsyism, Islamophobia, xenophobia and other forms of ethnic-racial discrimination.

The spokesperson announced that "soon" there will also be "a law that aims to end the institutional racism that is perpetuated from the institutions", for this reason, "we must apply an anti-racist look at the language, the way of doing and exercising all public policies taking into account their causes and consequences".

On the other hand, continuing with the improvement of the Catalan administrations to be adapted to the 21st century, the Government has approved the first step of the Catalan Public Employment Law. For the first time, Catalonia will have a law that defines a model of its own civil service, contemplating and collecting the requirements and needs of public employees and establishing a single regulatory framework for all Catalan public administrations. In this way, "an improvement in the institutional quality of public employment positions is promoted by introducing basic elements of innovation that make the civil service an institution with a high degree of professionalism, impartiality and responsibility, and with an unquestionable vocation of service to the people", reiterated Plaja.

Prior to the drafting of the bill, a public consultation will be carried out through the Participa gencat portal to gather the opinions and demands of Catalan citizens. Specific consultations will also be made to entities and associations for the care of people with disabilities and to the most representative trade union organizations in the civil service.

Reinforcement of inspections to ensure the use of the Covid certificate

The Catalan Police Corps (Mossos d'Esquadra) and the local police will reinforce in the coming days in joint devices random inspections to ensure the proper use of the Covid certificate. It is a measure that has taken this morning the Commission delegated in the matter of Covid, after a few first days in which the priority has been the adaptation on the part of the citizenship to the extension of the use of this passport in the sector of the restoration, gymnasiums and residences. Plaja has specified that the inspection may also be carried out at the request of one of the parties, either the owner of an establishment or a person accessing.

The spokesperson has taken stock of this first weekend with the extended use of the certificate, which has been "without remarkable incidents", and has thanked once again the good predisposition of the sectors involved and the citizenship. She also explained that the Govern will study how to apply the vaccination in children from 5 to 11 years, after it was known a few minutes ago the authorization to vaccinate this group. Although the details of the vaccination will be announced at the end of the week in a press conference to be held by the Department of Health, the spokesperson has advanced that the vaccination will begin to vaccinate children of eleven years and will be progressively lowering the age.

Revocation of a “Sant Jordi” Cross

The Executive Council has agreed to revoke the Cross of “Sant Jordi”, awarded in 2007, to Josep Lluís Fernández i Padró after having knowledge, explained the spokesperson, "of some very serious accusations against his person and that the Ecclesiastical Tribunal itself , which has pronounced on the matter because Fernández is a retired priest, has publicly recognized 'that there are substantiated indications of the commission of a felony'".