The regional administration’s team was rounded up this Thursday to review a set of unsettled items. A note from the legslature’s schedule points to an omission in the Corts-C council funding plan for the upcoming Wednesday, with January 31st slated as the key date for discussion. The Valencian Parliament will host the session, and the agenda highlights a detailed review of the initial Fiscal and Financial Policy Council’s work, as well as proposals and objectives for the current legislative period. A central topic will be the anticipated figures to request from the equalization fund, a critical pool designed to balance regional funding. The forum will evaluate the report prepared by a panel of experts, who will present core numbers and policy directions, including an assessment of the resources needed to support the region’s financial commitments.
The commission underscored that it must convene before each major meeting with the Treasury to keep the process on track and ensure rapid progress toward the next session. Recently, the national administration’s budget minister announced intentions to pursue a February-wide effort to reduce the debt that has been a focal point of discussions since the investment agreement with the ERC. The plan is to push for steady reductions across autonomous administrations, aligning with broader fiscal stabilization aims.
Although a pre-meeting is required for every CPFF gathering, this body did not convene before the December forum. It is expected to meet next Wednesday, with considerations including the first session that established deficit targets for the regional sector and the tighter margin that produced a 500 million shortfall in the Consell’s accounts—an amount larger than the budgetary projections initially anticipated.
In addition, the commission will discuss “suggestions and objectives” related to participation in the next gathering, whose date has not yet been fixed. The Finance Minister presented a priority that centers on a comprehensive reform of the system. A request was also made for an asymmetric deficit allowance that would permit a modest deviation from stability norms, a negotiation that is expected to unfold at the forthcoming meeting and within the leveling fund. The minister overseeing the Treasury signaled that certain doors would close this Thursday to keep expectations aligned with available instruments.
Within this framework, the commission will also share with the Cortes’ parties the conclusions drawn by the financing experts who were summoned by the ministry a month earlier to update the figures and to confirm that Valencia’s financing remains insufficient, based on the meetings in which the team carried out its work. The session will, among other things, detail the proposed size of the equalization fund and how it should serve to bring the Valencian Community closer to the average level of state resources allocated to each autonomous region.
According to the consultant’s assessment, the target for the equalization fund is approximately 1.5 billion. In a recent study, another research body calculated a figure around 1,150 million, suggesting a gap of about 350 million in the comparison. Since autonomy indicators place the region three points away from the national average in these calculations, the Consell indicates that it does not accept those numbers as definitive and awaits the formal assessment from experts. The ongoing debate centers on aligning regional needs with national revenue distribution while ensuring fiscal stability and predictable funding for public services.