Administration and Government of Catalonia

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

A Parliament of Catalonia hwhen 135 seats & serves as a legislative body of government.[http://www.parlament-cat.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,33596&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL]

A President & a Executive Council help when a executive authority & come elected per Parliament. The food and drug administration of Catalonia is Sixteen departments or even ministries. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/departaments.jsp]

View comarques of Catalonia for the official division within comarca (roughly tantamount to counties), utilized per Generalitat. Local administration consists besides of municipalities. Catalonia is divided inside foursome provinces: Barcelona, Girona (Gerona in Spanish), Lleida (Lérida within Spanish, Lhèida in Aranese), Tarragona.

Restoration of Catalan self-government

Fallowing Franco's demise (1975) and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain (1978), Catalonia recovered its autonomous status (lost by having a fall of the Second Spanish Republic at the guide of the Spanish Civil War within 1939).

Using two or three exceptions, virtually all of the justice rules is administered by national judicial institutions. A legal body is green to a lot Spanish territories except for the civil law, which is regulated and administered independently inside Catalonia [http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm]. Catalan civil law regulates an ombudsman (Síndic de Greuges) [http://www.sindicgreugescat.org] to address problems that can arise between personal citizens or even organizations & a Generalitat or other local governments.

the region has bit by bit achieved a greater degree of autonomy since 1979. Fallowing a Navarre and the Basque Country regions, Catalonia has the greatest level of self-self-determination around Spain. A Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters of culture, environment, communications, transport, commerce, public safety & local governments. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/exclusives.jsp] Inside numbers of aspects on to education, health & justice, a area shares jurisdiction sustaining a Spanish government. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/concurrents.jsp] Of these adept lesson of Catalonia's degree of autonomy is its have police, a Mossos d'Esquadra (literally 'squad lads'), 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. Nonetheless, potentially at a prevent of a transition run within 2008 [http://www.gencat.net/mossos/cme/desplegapdf/despleg.pdf], the Spanish government may keep two or three agencies in the area for matters on to terrorist act & immigration. Such as a 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].

As an autonomous community of Spain, Catalonia has there is no official status or even recognition at an international level. All a same, when the area has more and more gained a greater degree of autonomy around recent years, the Catalan Government has opened a bit of representative agents overseas. Virtually all one carry out limited functions like the promotion of Catalan culture, trade & foreign investment, & potentially a catching of foreign labour (using a review to easing problems by having illegal immigration).

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

Language

Catalonia is the original heartland of Catalan, & remains a first and big territory in which a language is spoken.

Catalan is one of them official languages of Catalonia, every bit placed down in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/cat/generalitat/estatut/index.jsp]: a more is Castilian (Spanish), which is the majority language throughout Spain (its official status confirmed per 1978 Spanish Constitution). Catalonia has regulated its institutions & their various competency inside a framework provided per Spanish constitution in the "Sau Statute."

A similarity of Spanish & Catalan eases bilingualism, but it is sure as shooting non accent of one language. Catalan is regarded by virtually all linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the class action that includes Spanish), however it has numerous features of Gallo-Romance languages such as French.

Occitan, in its Aranese kind (the idiom of Gascon) is official and subject to favorite protection in the Val d'Aran (Aran Valley), which is notable, as this small region of 7,000 is the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) has full official status.

Literacy

Based on data from a 2001 Linguistic Census [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/censling2001.pdf], just about 5,900,000 population within Catalonia, about 95% of residents, know a Catalan language. A percentage of population aged 2 & older world health organization may speak, page through and write Catalan is when follows:

Across a survive Twenty years, cognition of Catalan has advanced significantly altogether these areas, by with a ability to write it having had a virtually all pronounced increase, from either 31.6% of the people around 1986 to 49.8% around 2001.

By cohort, people between 10 & 29 keep around a higher level of Catalan-language literacy (e.g., 98.2% aged 10–14 know it, & 85.2% may write it); this is attributed to these people with received their fully education within Catalan.

Geographically, Catalan is virtually all understood within north-east Catalonia (Alt Pirineu, Val d'Aran), at 97.4%, followed by south and western Catalonia, whereas Barcelona's metropolitan area sees the lowest knowledge, at 93.8%. A situation is correspondent for written-language skills, by owning central Catalonia scoring a greatest percentages (61.4%), & Barcelona a last (46.4%).

Barcelona is one of a centres of the Spanish book industry in Spanish and the independent a single for Catalan-language publication.

Social Use

Based on datthe from a survey carried call at 2003 per Generalitat first state Catalunya [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/usos2003.pdf], Catalan is utilized by Fifty.1% of the people inside everyday situations.

Significantly, ended 55% of respondents apply Spanish to location their parents (versus 42% world health organization see Catalan). This is attributed to massive immigration from either either either southern Spain from a 2nd half of a 20th century until the Eighties, following of which numerous Catalans develop a single or even two parents from outside Catalonia. Still, the majority (52.6%) apply Catalan sustaining their toddlers (42.3% Spanish). This may be attributed to a select few Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from either their first language to Catalan home.

Outside a personal, 48.6% of a people show that it location alien entirely or even preferentially within Catalan, when the proportion of people world health organization utilize Spanish is 41.7%. Octad.6% claim to utilize two equally.

Look at Catalan language for further data.

Aranese

Based on data from a 2001 Aranese Linguistic Census [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/aran/docs/a_aran_cens.pdf], cognition of Aranese in the Occitan-speaking territory of Aran is when follows:

Comparing to last information from either 1996, a total of people take a breath to realize Aranese has declined slightly (Xc.5% inside 1996), when at the equivalent instance there has been a marginal increase in the total of people entity to write it (Twenty-four.97% within 1996).

By cohort, a big percentage of people sustaining cognition of Aranese is in the 15-19 & 65-69 groups (each above 96%), when victims aged 30-34 score moo (upright all over 80%). Literacy is higher in the 10-19 class action by having concluded 88% declaring themselves entity to underst&, and 76% a cappella to write Aranese. Victims concluded Eighty come a least literate person, sustaining single astir One.5% of a babies existence entity to write the language.

Basefive hundred on data from their place of origin, these are important to note that in the Val d'Aran victims born outside Spain outnumber Spaniards born outside Aran & Catalonia in a active have of Aranese (17% of non-Spaniards could write Aranese, when the percentage for Spaniards excluding Catalans is 10%).

Politics of Catalonia

When you took a Nineteenth & Twentieth centuries, Catalonia was one of a independent centres of Spanish industrialization.

A struggle between a Barcelonese conservative middle class & a working class, typically immigrants from either a rest of Spain, dominated Catalan politics.

Catalan nationalist & federalist movements arose inside a nineteenth century, & while the 2nd Republic was declared in 1931, Catalonia became an autonomous region. Below a fall of a 2nd Republic fallowing a Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, the authoritarian stalinism of General Francisco Franco annulled Catalonia's autonomy statute & prohibited any official promotion or even recognition of the Catalan language (although its personal everday utilise was never proscribed). When you took a endure decade of Franco's rule, there wwhen the revivification of nationalistic sentiment around Catalonia as in the more 'historic' area of the Basque provinces.

Resulting Franco's dying inside 1975 and the restoration of fully democracy by 1978, Catalonia regained its status as an autonomous region in Spain. A Catalan nationalistic leader Jordi Pujol came to power around the first regional elections in 1980 & his two-two-way coalition, Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió or CiU), won successive elections for Xxiii years.

Terra Lliure ("Free Land"), which was in essence the terrorist group, sought to achieve independence through violence against Spanish interests & a wider people, however it never achieved a infamy or even email of the Basque terrorist organisatoin [[ETA], and disbanded after negotiations with the national government.

Following the 1996 national elections in Spain, and despite his long track-record as a Catalan nationalist (especially during the Franco era), Pujol suprised many by lending CiU's support to the minority government formed by the conservative - and essentially centralist - People's Party (Partido Popular or PP) led by José María Aznar. Some nationalist factions became increasingly dissatisfied with Pujol's rule, especially the ERC. At the same time, the Party of Catalan Socialists (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya or PSC), a sister-party of Spain's main socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol or PSOE) based in the industrial heartland of Barcelona, began to enjoy renewed electoral popularity.

One of the 'fault-lines' in contemporary Catalan politics arises from the fact that Barcelona, with its strong metropolitan economy, continues to attract migrants from all over Spain and Latin America. As a result, Spanish remains the language spoken by the majority of Barcelona's inhabitants, particularly in working-class areas. By contrast, Catalan remains the predominant language in middle-class and upper-class urban areas, as well as among the region's rural population. The PSC has to some extent become the party of those who resent the dominance of middle-class Catalan nationalists over Barcelona. In any case, while Catalan has undoubtedly experienced a spectacular revival since the death of Franco, the dominant presence of Spanish-speakers will continue to make universal or exclusive use of Catalan unlikely. Recently there has been an influx of African and East European immigrants, but this has not yet influenced the political scene, even though the demographic impact of immigration can clearly be seen on the streets.

At the regional elections held on November 16 2003, at which Pujol retired, the combined parties of the left defeated the CiU for the first time and Pasqual Maragall i Mira became President of the Generalitat. Maragall's Socialists, however, actually lost seats: the big winners were the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya or ERC), which favours full Catalan independence, and the Greens. While PSC mantains the post of President of the Generalitat (Maragall), ERC nominates the conseller primer (prime minister) — currently, Bargalló.

Maragall's government is a somewhat uneasy coalition between the PSC, the ERC, and the ICV.

Current political issues

Unlike the autonomous communities of Navarre and the Basque Country, Catalonia lacks its own fiscal system; thus the economic financing of the regional administration depends almost entirely on funds raised by national-government taxation and budgeted to Catalonia. This has become a mainstream issue, particularly as the the proposed reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy is currently the subject of intense political debate at regional and national level. From an economic perspective, 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).

There is currently (Autumn 2005) a raging political controversy in Spain as a result of the Catalan parliament's proposed draft of a replacement Autonomy Statute (supported by some 90% of the parliament's elected deputies) which seeks to define Catalonia as a 'nation'[http://www.gencat.net/nouestatut/]. The polemic centres on the politically sensitive issue of whether such a definition can be said to harbour separatist overtones which offend against Spain's 1978 Constitution (the preamble of which refers to "the Spanish nation").

Parties
CiU — Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Unity) - federation CDC — Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia) UDC — Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Union of Catalonia) ERC — Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia) ICV-EUiA — Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Green Initiative for Catalonia-Left United Alternative) PP — Partit Popular (People's Party) PSC-PSOE — Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Socialist Party of Catalonia-Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)

Summary of votes and seats

Votes and seats are compared with those won at the 1999 election.

Voters: 5,307,837 Voting: 3,319,276 62.5% Invalid votes: 8,793 00.3% Valid votes: 3,310,483 99.7% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Party Votes % Seats ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Convergència i Unió 1,024,425 30.9 (-06.8) 46 (-10) Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya 544,324 16.4 (+07.7) 23 (+11) Iniciativa Verds-Esquerra Alternativa 241,163 07.3 (+04.8) 9 (+06) Partit Popular 393,499 11.9 (+02.4) 15 (+03) Partit Socialista de Catalunya 1,031,454 31.2 (-06.6) 42 (-10) Others 75,618 02.3 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 3,310,483 135 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Geography

The Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia borders on Comunidad Valenciana to the south, Aragon to the west, France and Andorra to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east and southeast.

The Environment

Awareness of environmental problems tends to be much lower in Catalonia (and in Spain as a whole) than in northern Europe. CO₂ emissions in Catalonia have increased by 40% since 1992 and 60% of the region's electricity comes from aging nuclear power stations (a figure exceeded in Europe only by France and Lithuania). Despite Catalonia's change of government in 2004 from a conservative CiU/PP alliance to a "red/green" tripartite coalition of PSC, ERC, and ICV parties, there is little evidence of greater concern for the environment. The ICV was put in charge of the Ministry of the Environment but has largely continued the outgoing administration's environmentally-unfriendly policies. The Ministry's decision to build the controversial Bracons tunnel through an area of outstanding natural beauty, and a scheme to site an incinerator burning 90,000 metric tonnes of industrial waste [http://www.valldelges.net/en] in a heavily-populated valley are just two cases in point. Although Catalonia participates in many international environmental forums, the political will to pursue "green" polices is generally lacking. This may be explained by the greater acceptance of political corruption found in southern Europe, the fragility of public institutions, and a lack of genuine commitment to grass-roots democracy.

Mountains: Catalan Pyrenees: Val d'Aran in the north face, Pica d'Estats 3141 m., Puigmal 2911 m., Cerdagne depression, Perthus pass (near the ancient Roman road). Catalan Litoral mountains: Montseny, Montserrat, Montsant. Iberic system: Maestrat.

Major rivers: Fluvià Ter Llobregat Foix Francolí Gaià Ebre and its tributaries: Noguera, Segre, Valira.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia

There are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia:

Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, Tarragona Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí Parc Güell, Barcelona Palau Güell, Barcelona Casa Milà, Barcelona Poblet Monastery, Poblet, Tarragona province Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona