Josean Izarra Vitoria

Victoria

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-20:08

The Government of Spain has granted Euskadi the transfer of two of the three subjects that President Pedro Sánchez owed to the PNV for its support in the investiture.

The agreement reached this afternoon includes the transfer to the Basque Government of several Cercanías railway lines in Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa with the possibility also of Euskadi developing its own services in the province of Álava.

In addition, the Basque Country becomes the only community in Spain with the capacity to approve university degrees, a key competence for recruiting health professionals in the face of the traffic jam of up to 80,000 requests that accumulate in the Ministry of Education.

President Pedro Sánchez committed to the PNV last November to transfer Cercanías, the homologation of titles and the reception of immigrants within three months.

Today, one day after Lehendakari Urkullu set the electoral call for April 21, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the Department of Governance have closed the two technical agreements that specify the transfer of Cercanías and the homologation of titles.

The same working groups plan to meet next Monday to close the transfer of the emigrant reception phase to the Basque Government.

The Basque Country will assume the management of Cercanías railway services with the commitment that the Sánchez Government will allocate 400 million to improve these infrastructures that serve areas near Bilbao and San Sebastián respectively.

The transfer also includes the so-called Southern Railway Bypass, an infrastructure with which freight traffic by train arriving and departing from the Port of Bilbao has increased.

The Variant is in the process of construction and when it is completed it will be managed by Euskadi.

Furthermore, the agreement reached makes the Basque Country the only Spanish autonomous community with the capacity to approve foreign university degrees.

"The approval grants the foreign title the same effects of the Spanish title to which it is approved throughout the national (state) territory. Likewise, it will entail the possibility of exercising the regulated profession in question under the same conditions as the people who hold the Spanish titles that qualify for such an exercise," explained the Department of Governance led by Minister Olatz Garamendi (PNV).

In October 2022, the approval of RD 889/2022 intended to provide a solution to these waits, and together with it, a shock plan was launched with 68 officials.

Three months later, in January 2023, the accumulated files reached 40,000 and just one year later, in October 2023, there was already a logjam of 80,000 unresolved files, reports

Olga R. Sanmartín

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