• Government: Pedro Sánchez assigns the Social Security management to the Basque Country
  • Promises. Pedro Sánchez promises the PNV "to adapt the structure of the State" to recognize that Catalonia and the Basque Country are nations
  • Hemeroteca.The PNV will require the management of Social Security before negotiating the Budgets

Pedro Sánchez materialized on Thursday one of the main promises he made to the PNV to gain his support for the investiture and initiated the transfer of Social Security management to the Basque Country. The Government defends that the single box - that is, the system that guarantees the equality of all Spaniards in social benefits, including pensions - is not in danger. However, the PNV has very different plans.

With the agreed transfer package and with Social Security as the maximum achievement, the nationalists consider the development of the Gernika Statute, which has been in force for the past four decades, to complete a new text of self-government, which They were already underway in the Basque Parliament and must be approved in the legislature that will begin after the elections on April 5.

In that context, the PNV will try to develop its objective, which effectively goes through breaking the unique Social Security fund . The party plans are included in a document approved by the General Assembly of the PNV 2016 and entitled Towards its own Social Security and Pensions system for the CAV [Autonomous Community of the Basque Country] and Navarra . Here is how to obtain the transfer of the general regime is only the first step to "then create a Basque Social Security in successive phases".

"The construction of an own social security framework cannot be done from theoretical positions only, but from the practicality of closing a transfer agreement of the Decent Social Security economic regime and generous statutory reading for, subsequently, and based on the advances in self-government, establishing an own framework that satisfies the needs of the Social Security for Euskadi and Navarra, "says the text.

A State "captive of welfare in the Spanish system"

The ultimate goal, of course, is to "set up decent pensions for the Basques", for which the rest of Spain appears as a drag. "Euskadi presents a better radiography than the State with forecasts, offering a scenario of at least 10 points less in unemployment and deficit, resulting in a positive, starting, perspective for the redesigned implementation of an own pension system" , says the text.

He goes on to say that there are "inalienable premises of the current captive welfare state in the Spanish system" that "are insufficient to meet reality and social demand."

"The songs to the sustainability by the use of new style and content, the unique box , the shout to the supposed territorial insolidarity or the familiar coffee for all equal before potential differentiated alternatives in the saving and the voluntary social forecast lack route", affirms the PNV, making clear what the nationalism of the current system thinks.

Training sources ratified this Thursday the validity of this "communication" approved by the highest nationalist body. It is not surprising that the Basque Government spokesman, Josu Erkoreka , who has been in charge of negotiating transfers with the minister, said that we are facing "a historic milestone."

Currently, around 1,500 Social Security officials under the Government of Spain provide their services in the Basque Country both in the Social Security Treasury - the body in charge of collection - and in the National Social Security Institute ( INSS ), responsible for paying all benefits.

Basque retirees, 1,248 euros

Pensions in the Basque Country carry an annual deficit of around 4,000 million euros and Basque retirees have an average retirement of 1,248 euros per month. In Extremadura , the region with the lowest average pensions, is 836 euros per month, according to official data from last January. The manifestations of Basque pensioners have been constant in recent years, particularly in Bilbao , where every Monday they were concentrated next to the Guggenheim Museum.

The single Social Security fund is protected by the doctrine of the Constitutional Court. However, parties such as the PP, Citizens or Vox have already warned that this transfer is the first step to achieve this and involves a transfer to the nationalist government of one of the pillars of the welfare system of Spain and the equality of all citizens regardless of your place of residence.

According to the calendar agreed between both executives, 14 transfers will be made immediately. Among them, private security services, meteorology, road transport, coastal management and tourism hostels. They must be completed by the end of this year.

Then, from January 2021, a second transfer package will enter, highlighting the management of hydrocarbons, sea rescue, airports, "ports of general interest", immigration and the municipal electoral system.

The date imposed: June 2021

Social Security will go in a final package, from June 2021. The president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, warned this Thursday that they will work "boldly" so that everything is done "within a year."

The Government has proceeded to sign the transfers just a month and a half after Sanchez achieved the investiture, in full pre-campaign of the Basque elections and at a time when the PNV is going through serious problems due to its management of the Zaldibar landfill.

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  • PNV
  • Basque Country
  • Navarre
  • PSOE
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Pensions
  • Basque Country Elections

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