Catalonia

:This article is about the Spanish autonomous community. There is also an article on its government, the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Administration and Government of Catalonia

The Generalitat is the institution of government in Catalonia. It consists of a Parliament, a President and an Executive Council. http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/index.jsp

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The Parliament of Catalonia has 135 seats and serves as the legislative body of government.http://www.parlament-cat.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,33596&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

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The President and the Executive Council serve as the executive authority and are elected by the Parliament. The Government of Catalonia comprises 16 departments or ministries. http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/departaments.jsp

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See comarques of Catalonia for the official division in comarca (roughly equivalent to counties), used by the Generalitat. Local administration consists also of municipalities. The Spanish Government divides Catalonia into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Tarragona.

Related Topics:
Comarques of Catalonia - Comarca - Provinces - Barcelona - Girona - Lleida - Tarragona

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Rebirth of the Catalan self-government

After Franco's death (1975) and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain (1978), Catalonia recovered its autonomous status (lost with the fall of the Second Republic at the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War in 1939).

Related Topics:
1975 - A democratic constitution in Spain - 1978

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Achievements

With a few exceptions, most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions. The legal system is common to all Spanish territories except for the civil law, which is regulated and administered independently within Catalonia http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm. Catalan civil law regulates an ombudsman (Síndic de Greuges) http://www.sindicgreugescat.org to handle problems that may arise between private citizens or organizations and the Generalitat or other local governments.

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The region has been continuously achieving higher levels of autonomy since 1979 based on its distinct historical identity. After the Navarre and the Basque Country regions, Catalonia has the highest level of self-government in Spain. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters of culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/exclusives.jsp In many aspects relating to education, health and justice, the region shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government. http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/concurrents.jsp

Related Topics:
Navarre - Basque Country - Generalitat

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One good example of Catalonia's high level of autonomy is its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra (literally 'the boys of the squad'), which is currently in the process of taking over most of the role within Catalonia of the Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, which are under the authority of the Spanish national government. However, even at the end of the transition process in 2008 http://www.gencat.net/mossos/cme/desplegapdf/despleg.pdf, the Spanish government will keep a few agents in the region for matters relating to terrorism and immigration. Like the Mossos d'Esquadra, municipal police forces are under the authority of the government of Catalonia http://www.gencat.net/mossos/cme/organitzacio/contingutpdf/FuncPGME.pdf.

Related Topics:
Mossos d'Esquadra - ''Guardia Civil'' - ''Policía Nacional''

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As an autonomous community of Spain, Catalonia has no official status or recognition at an international level. However, as the region has progressively gained a greater degree of autonomy in recent years, the Catalan Government has opened some representative offices overseas. Most of these carry out limited functions such as the promotion of Catalan culture, trade and foreign investment, and even the contracting of foreign labour (with a view to easing problems with illegal immigration).

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http://www.copca.comhttp://www.cidem.com/cidem/cat/elcidem/info/cidem_en.jsphttp://www.copec.es/http://nosaltres.vilaweb.com/info/vilaweb/vilaweb.generar_directori?p_idint=670561

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Current Contentions

Unlike the autonomous communities of Navarre and the Basque Country, Catalonia lacks its own fiscal system; thus the economic sustainment of the regional administration depends almost entirely on funds raised by national-government taxation and budgeted to Catalonia. This has become a mainstream issue, as the Catalan Statute of Autonomy is to due to be reformed in the course of 2005 http://www.gencat.net/nouestatut/. The regional government aims to achieve a high degree of fiscal autonomy (based on the argument that the region pays in more to the national Spanish coffers than it receives)http://www.desequilibri.net/eng/default.asp.

Related Topics:
Navarre - Basque Country

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