# Catalunya 2022 - RESET: Call to reactivate Catalonia https://2022.cat/en --- ## Introduction https://2022.cat/en/introduction On 2 June 2020, the Executive Council of the Government of Catalonia approved resolution GOV/69/2020, setting up the 2022 Catalonia Task Force, a collegiate body that advises the president of the Government of Catalonia and the Executive Council with the aim of pooling talent from a broad range of spheres and disciplines and benefitting from a commitment from civil society to define policies aimed at assuring the competitiveness and development of Catalonia amid the future circumstances that may arise as a result of Covid-19. The 2022 Catalonia Task Force has been coordinated by Victòria Alsina-Burgués and Genís Roca Verard, and is formed by the following members: Joan Abellà Barril, Jordi Amat Fusté, Oriol Amat i Salas, Josep Maria Benet Ferran, Elisenda Bou-Balust, Elies Campo i Cid, Mònica Campos Estévez, Albert Cañigueral Bagó, Mercè Crosas i Navarro, José Antonio Donaire Benito, Martina Font Olivé, Anna Garriga Ripoll, Gabriel Jené Llabrés, Jacint Jordana Casajuana, Josep Maria Martorell Rodon, Ramon Maspons Bosch, Neus Monllor Rico, Cristina Nadal Sanmartín, Laura Peracaula Basagaña, Mercedes Pujol Artigas, Coral Regí Rodríguez, Josep Maria Salas i Prat, Jordi Sellas i Ferrés, Maria Sisternas Tusell, Montse Solsona Pairó, Lluís Torner Sabata, Laura Urquizu Barasoain and Montserrat Vendrell Rius. It is attached to the Ministry of the Presidency and has benefitted from the support of the Directorate-General for Analysis and Foresight. The task force operates on an entirely independent basis and has worked over two terms of office with an undertaking to deliver a document of proposals to the next Government of Catalonia that is formed. It performs a task that is complementary to the work of the Committee for Drafting the Social Protection and Economic Reactivation Plan as a result of the Covid-19 crisis (CORECO) – an Executive Council-led effort – and the work of the EU Next Generation Advisory Committee (CONEXT CAT-EU), which centres more specifically on the extraordinary funding put in place by the European Union. The members of the 2022 Catalonia Task Force have set themselves the criterion of choosing actions that are realistically feasible in view of the current circumstances in Catalonia, without getting into economic or political speculation, focussing on those actions that can be launched in the short-term even if they may not immediately be accomplished. These actions are not just addressed to the Government of Catalonia; they also address other public and private organisations in Catalonia. In order to carry out this task they have engaged in dialogue with hundreds of individuals and organisations, and an appeal was made to the public with the result that more than 1,400 proposals for specific actions have been submitted. The outcome that is laid out is the result of a body of joint work, and the people that have contributed do not necessarily agree with all the proposals and conclusions set out. --- ## Executive summary https://2022.cat/en/executive-summary History tells us that whenever the world has embraced processes of transformation, Catalonia has joined in resolutely thanks to **the drive of civil society**, which has explored the future both from the standpoint of the economy and the business world, and from the perspective of science and the arts. The construction of Urgell canal or the first railway line in Spain is contemporaneous to the cultural movement of the Catalan Renaissance (approx. 1830s-1880s) or the appearance of the popular athenaeums. Based on this background, the 2022 Catalonia Task Force offers a reflection from the arena of civil society in order to tackle the current health crisis that coincides with a period of structural change shifting towards a digital society. Far from serving as a compulsory compendium, this paper strives to act as a **motivation for debate**, reflection and, hopefully, decision-making. The 2022 Catalonia Task Force has organised its proposals into three spheres: **society, economy and administration**. It considers that the current context calls for emphasis on support, care and growth for people; development of the economy and the competitiveness of Catalonia; and modernisation of the administration to transform it into an efficient driver operating as part of a network geared to generating public value. A concept of a nation where people are at the heart of policy. In order to achieve **a fair, empowered and capable society**, we view education and culture as the primary driving forces behind personal, collective and nationwide transformations. These spheres act as the gateway to rights and critical spirit, and it is necessary to focus efforts on **speeding up the transformation of the education system** and on a **cultural policy centred on the development of people**, rather than solely on the growth of industries and facilities. It is necessary **to coordinate local culture settings**, along with national centres as well, and to be able to **assess the extent to which society benefits** from the whole cultural system. We need to strive for innovation in terms of content, formats and distribution channels, and tackle the challenges of the audiovisual and digital sectors, **re-establishing the public media**. In doing so, it is necessary to bear in mind that in this increasingly globalised and digitalised world, we face a huge challenge in **championing the language** and the future of our cultural identity. Culture and education go hand in hand; accordingly, we also need specific actions **to address school failure and dropout** and **to broaden the independence of schools** in parallel, whilst strengthening education networks in each area and organising various solutions which enable **lifelong learning** processes, which must also encompass vocational training. The great majority of the actions set out in this document strive to solve **structural problems** that the pandemic has simply revealed or magnified. The health crisis has triggered dangers in terms of health, employment, housing and future prospects, further highlighting the need to progress towards a more effective and proactive **comprehensive care and support model**. It is vital to **connect health and social services**, overcoming the stigmatisation that ties social services solely to persons in extreme situations, and making these services universal to enable everybody to benefit from an assigned social and medical professional to support them with their vital development, incorporating a holistic, empowering perspective of the relationship between the individual and the community. It is necessary **to improve the conditions for people working in domestic roles and caring for dependents**, to showcase the economic value of this whole activity and to regulate professions in this sector. Our proposal is to enable access to **housing as a critical mechanism to combat structural inequalities** through a determined intervention to bring 10% of housing under public ownership within ten years. The competitiveness of our economy will depend on talent and innovation. We need to be highly active in **enhancing and upgrading our tax and regulatory system** so that it can finally help to deliver the changes we wish to encourage as a nation, such as the construction of competitive benefits by applying the **circular economy** or, more specifically, the incorporation of **green innovation into the traditional industrial fabric**. We propose specific actions to **champion local trade** using familiar mechanisms (such as urban economic promotion areas) or new ones (such as the set-up of urban logistics hubs), as well as specific actions for tourism, such as **redirecting the tax on stays in tourism establishments** or **bringing our tourist marketing up to date**, both with regard to the governance model and in terms of uses of technology. Aside from the already familiar need to achieve greater sovereignty in the management of our key infrastructure, we also sought to highlight our similarly necessary **food and energy sovereignty**. A resolute commitment to **zero-mile energy** is needed on a municipal level and with regard to family housing, whilst encouraging the **purchase of local, green produce** by lending **support to fishing, forestry, livestock and agricultural sites** to improve their management, to ensure they are environmentally friendly and to enable technology to be applied to their exchanges and markets in order to ensure fairer pricing, reduced costs and enhanced competitiveness. **Scientific research is a driving force for development** and we must insist on **training, attraction and retention of talent**, as well as on **knowledge and technology transfer**. We should provide ourselves with tax incentive programmes, investment funds and public procurement models to **champion projects generated within the enterprising ecosystem of Catalonia**, both those based on disruptive technologies and those that are already at the incubation stage. We require a **Catalonia founded on science and data** where decisions concerning health, economy, administrative and service-related organisation throughout Catalonia, education and the rights and obligations of citizens, among other aspects, are forged on a foundation of scientific knowledge and empirical evidence-based facts. It is essential to benefit from a **real-time system of data broken down by regions** to support decision-making both by citizens and by the public and private sectors. The activation of Catalonia put forward in this document calls for an **administration centred on creating public value**, fostering and encouraging the participation of civil society; that is, a mobilising administration that serves as a catalyst for change and that brings itself into the modern world in order to be able to organise a **public/private cooperation** model to channel the commitment of civil society (companies, associations, citizens) to the development of Catalonia and the wellbeing of the people. We need **new staff promotion and selection systems within the administration**, we must foster regulations to prevent job insecurity and **turn public management into a professional activity** starting with directorate generals. We should also foster **horizontal careers and mobility of public workers** between various administrations and organisations in the public sector to the extent that, for instance, one individual may spend a number of days working for the Government of Catalonia with the remainder of the week spent at a town council. We propose establishing mechanisms to **assess the activity of the administration according to the public value generated** (and not merely based on meeting deadlines and conditions) while re-designing processes, encouraging the **independence of public sector bodies** and **promoting citizen audits**. Rebalancing the organisation of the different Catalan regions calls for the implementation of **new local administration funding systems**, the **coordination of regional plans** and **a special plan for microtowns**, but it also requires a major forestry pact to promote the **green economy** and a **blue pact** to preserve and develop the Catalan coastline. This regional situation also involves **assuring first-class connectivity throughout Catalonia** and **eradicating digital poverty** in order **to raise Catalonia into the Cloud**. We need a **cross-departmental personal data architecture** that encompasses the various administrations, adopting the **once-only principle** to any procedure, along with a legal **act to govern the digital public sector** that will unlock the current legal barriers that are standing in the way of implementing the digital services characteristic of a modern society. In total, twelve goals organised into three spheres and broken down into 91 actions to reactivate Catalonia. This is a proposal to start a Catalonia-wide debate centred on action. --- ## The train of prosperity https://2022.cat/en/train-of-prosperity ### From the Catalonia of 2022 to tomorrow's Catalonia That day bore witness to change in the history of Catalonia. Miquel Biada was a businessman who had spent over ten years envisioning how the steam engine could become a fundamental tool for progress. It was his belief that the train had the potential to transform the social and economic development of a nation. He came back to Catalonia firmly believing that this infrastructure element made it possible to transport a present-day society into tomorrow's world. This was the logic of the time; it served as the algorithm of a whole era. However, it was not easy to progress from idea to reality. He sought out internal alliances and found them; he sought outside funding and secured it; he navigated his way through the economic crises and the indolence of the centralist State that aimed to prioritise a different route. Ultimately, the Mataró-Barcelona line entered service on 28 October 1848. It was the logistical rudder needed for the development of a specific industry, but at the same time the project amalgamated the energy of a nation – one discovering its sense of identity anew – which was re-establishing a culture while simultaneously seeking to overcome the forthcoming challenge posed by the industrial revolution. Catalonia had made its place in the world as an epicentre for progress. Merely four years later, the engineer Domènec Cardenal began managing the work to build Urgell canal. It was not a new project; plans had been afoot since the Middle Ages, but it was viewed as far too complex and expensive. The final works called for a mix of ambition and technique. Among several hurdles, Montclar mountain range had to be overcome. It was necessary to assemble six thousand labourers in order to dig the approximately five-kilometre length of Montclar tunnel, the longest in Europe at the time. A decade later the first property was already being irrigated. In a short space of time, 6,500 hectares of new irrigated land had grown to as many as 62,000 merely two decades later. The water just kept on flowing. The social and economic change heralded by water on the plain of Urgell was extraordinary; indeed, it is still felt to this day. The ambition of the 19th century shrouded the streets of Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole. An economic and demographic revolution had taken place which would live on in the bustling primary sector of the counties of Lleida. One morning in September 1874, two guards were waiting on Carrer del Carme for that girl to leave her house. Their journey would be short, but the steps they were about to take would chart a course towards hope. The two officers were there to escort 17-year-old Dolors Aleu on her way to Santa Creu Hospital. Aleu is perfectly healthy. Thanks to her efforts, she was about to put right an unjust inertia. She wanted to follow a study programme for which she had a clear ability and, by overcoming an obscurantist tradition that denied women entry to higher education, she would go on to become the first woman in Spain to obtain a degree in Medicine. What is more, in 1882 she became the first woman to present a PhD thesis in Spain. In it she gave a reasoned statement for equality between genders and made an appeal for education as a force for justice. She opened a surgery on Rambla de les Flors. Her twofold decision – to receive an education with the aim of going on to train and, thus, advocating for improvements in social justice – could be seen as the prelude not just to the central role currently played by health sciences as a vector for wellbeing, but also to a notion of prosperity that cannot be detached from the concept of care as a cohesive factor in a society aware of the rift caused by inequality. Our history incorporates threads of hope that we must cling on to if we now want to weave together a collective network to recoup a future that is worth living in; in the mountain or at sea; in the countryside or in the city; moving from a feeling of defeat to one of pride. At a time when the history of self-government appeared to have been erased, the great celebration of the transition in Catalonia was marked by the return of an exiled president thanks to whom an entire nation recaptured the institution that had endowed it with political identity. On one evening in 1992, the mayor of Barcelona recalled in front of the whole world how the president of the Government of Catalonia had been assassinated due to fascism. That link to a tragic past became a common thread for commitment to Catalonia, embodied in a sporting event that transformed its capital and established Catalonia's place on the world map as a benchmark for global acclaim and blissful efficiency. Clinging on to threads, as many as possible, in order to reinvent futures. The design of futures does not take a final fate for granted; rather, it lays out a comprehensive vision and conceives specific opportunities for improvement that are devised here and now. This is the task that the 2022 Catalonia Task Force has set itself. We have done so by pooling a wide range of efforts, persuaded that it is better to be bold by plotting a course for our future than allow ourselves to have it restricted or imposed externally. We have attempted to do so with the freedom to think beyond the framework of institutions, albeit firmly committed to them. The proposal to organise ourselves as a task force was given to us by the Government of Catalonia and it is with honour that we accepted it, because we believe in the central role played by politics in a democratic society. With full liberty, it has been in this spirit that we have sought to envision a comprehensive project for the transformation of Catalonia; and not from scratch. In Catalonia we benefit from a legacy, a fabric; we believed we faced a challenge, in the same way as the pioneers of equality, industry or the countryside did. The challenge consists of starting anew. Indeed, because we are familiar with our past, we are aware that we do not need to start from scratch. We are keeping a promise of prosperity that goes a long way back and thanks to which, over several years, we have built up a host of assets which now need to be strengthened. Public and private assets. The aim is to find as much talent as possible – to create it, attract it and retain it – in order to make use of this fabric, modernise it and, accordingly, capitalise on it as much as possible to provide us with broad scope for creating wealth and better, more efficient public services that need to be implemented in a context that is now geared to the digital environment. The initiative involves resuming a tradition that was promoted by civil society and which has formed the common thread of modern Catalonia to put us in the best possible position to live in the society of the fourth industrial revolution. In recent times, Catalonia has changed scarcely, but the world order has developed substantially while climate crises, far from being reversed, have continued to gain traction as the primary threat to the future of humankind. We should not forget that that the UN has confirmed that climate stresses are and will be behind pandemics such as the one we are suffering right now. The present pandemic has accelerated the shift of the worldwide hegemony from the Atlantic to the Pacific and has disrupted the undeniable leadership exerted by Western democracies thus far. New geostrategic movements and tensions between major powers, which slow down the pace of financial globalisation and incorporate other variables (such as production and technology) are compelling everyone to reconsider what their place in the world may be. It has been in this moment of hiatus that we have noted to a large extent that our present constitutes a period of transition. Covid has marked a turning point in the unfolding of globalisation, with a new course being charted out. We are about to turn the page of a new chapter in our history that is forcing us to imagine the path we would like to follow over the next decades. At this juncture, in the midst of this hiatus that has engulfed the whole world, the time seems to have come for us to press the button for a reset; a reset to update a system that has worked for us in Catalonia, but which has been falling behind the times. We now need to consider what model of nation we would like for the future in order to be ready to build it once the health crisis is over. Is it ostentatious to consider the future of Catalonia in this change of paradigm and from a geostrategic perspective? We believe it is not. Quite the contrary, in fact. Faced with the risk of letting tomorrow's train of prosperity – which is closer than we thought it was prior to the pandemic – pass us by, we know that Catalonia will only benefit from a worthwhile future if it is imbued with the new European paradigm that is under construction to enable us to play a role in a world of regionalised globalisation and thereby ensure that our welfare state is much stronger. What, therefore, is this European paradigm? To uphold its mission of being a model in terms of rights and freedoms, the European Union has taken on the challenge of transforming certain key industries on the continent based on the New Green Deal, championing a fair transition and with digitalisation serving as the tool that must make it possible for institutions to be modernised and citizens to benefit from a better quality of life. It is a forward-looking vision that is aligned with the UN 2030 Agenda and which accepts that a specific State model, "the enterprising state", should serve as the vital catalyst of change. The enterprising state is proactive: it identifies problems, it exercises leadership by appealing to stakeholders who are in a position to solve those problems, and it contributes to the design of solutions. Public services – which are centred on and integrated into society – change the functionality of these solutions and steer their focus to the concept of public value, viewed as a service for the community. This enterprising state is nurtured by the strength of an enterprising society: the state will not be able to fulfil this modernising role without its society, through its endeavours and demands, breathing life into it. In order to start anew, Catalonia needs a policy of this type and certain public institutions need to be reformed to deliver better quality, more equitable services. The foremost of these institutions relates to the sphere of learning. There are also certain institutions that are reluctant to cooperate to bring about change (the centralised Spanish State unquestionably, although this is also the case within administrative culture to a degree). Frequently, there are institutions that are not in a position to be transformed so new ones must be set up or new models should be fostered to showcase the fact that the old ones have become outdated. In any event, when faced with the challenge of prosperity, only that which helps is meaningful; this is also true of a brave policy that prioritises the politics of things and steers clear of the little things in politics. It is at this juncture that the institutional alliance with private, third-sector stakeholders must enable Catalonia to align itself with the modernising project put forward by the European Union. The starting point must be the acknowledgment that the economic status of Catalonia in the world has slipped. Certain traditional sectors of our economy are becoming outdated, others are gaining traction and many will need to modernise by discovering the potential afforded by digitalisation and by capitalising on the unique opportunity served by the Next Generation Funds, as indeed the Catalonia-Next Generation EU Advisory Committee has pointed out in its report. In any event, in the face of this receding economic strength, an ambitious appeal must be made for all talent to work together with the aim of transferring all the knowledge gained in order to overhaul the economy of Catalonia and lend impetus to its productivity. The Government of Catalonia is well-placed to coordinate this innovation opportunity, and it must equally mobilise grants so that SMEs can digitalise their processes and deliver enhanced services. These are examples of action from an enterprising state. This catalysing task must benefit the institutions so that the rewards gained through this work make it possible to invest in the system of citizens' rights and freedoms; a system that has changed due to the pandemic, revealing the interconnected nature of health and social protection and showcasing the resulting need to consider both aspects at the same time. In a similar vein, the operation of this state lends new scope to parliamentary action. In recent years, the quest for sovereignty has been at the heart of Catalan politics and, in order to bring this in sync with the change of paradigm, it may be necessary to channel this quest for sovereignty as the fundamental instrument for the development of Catalonia: acting as the driving force behind alliances at various levels (regional and institutional) and, at the same time, making it more accountable for its obligations, requiring it to modernise its mechanisms for assessing government action. What needs to be done is to identify stakeholders that share this huge aim and are committed to this common one-nation goal. It is up to all of us to play a role from all realms: culture and science, business, administration and the general public. From those who envision the metropolis of Barcelona as a region of five million inhabitants – as set out in the Strategic Metropolitan Plan – to those who are exploring new areas of centrality around Catalonia; from the countryside through smaller towns to the magnets by the sea and the mountain which will continue to draw in visitors from all over the globe. Catalonia does not need to mirror any other country because no country is the same. Catalonia is a small-sized ecosystem, albeit one that is very complex and at the same time adequately cohesive – as demonstrated by a host of aspects from the varying nature of its geography to the poles of research or the density of its medium-sized business fabric. Indeed, this host of features means Catalonia is well-placed to serve as a laboratory to seek out a formula for progress that can be replicated: a model of society where economic and social prosperity, environmental sustainability and the commitment to science make it possible to place life at its core and to channel the wealth generated by a vibrant business fabric for the common good. A Catalonia that acts as an open laboratory for any new responsible, creative and global democracy. --- ## SPHERE 1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1 ### A fair, empowered and capable society The Covid crisis has imposed the need for remote operations in an educational and cultural system and in a working environment which, across various stages, fields and sectors, have proven themselves unprepared to reap the benefits of online activity and overcome its drawbacks. At the same time, the pandemic has caused people to feel threatened, both by the disease itself and as a result of the change it has brought about in their immediate environment in terms of health, employment, housing or future prospects. In this context, it is necessary to empower citizens with regard to their life process and to progress towards a comprehensive care model that is more effective and proactive. --- ## GOAL 1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1 ### To promote access to and participation in culture by innovating in terms of content, formats and distribution channels We view access to culture as the gateway to rights and critical spirit, and we consider culture and education to be the driving forces behind personal, collective and nationwide transformations. The importance placed on culture reveals a great deal about a nation, and the character and identity of the Catalan cultural system is at stake in an increasingly digitalised and globalised world. Public service is responsible for certain functions and reaches certain audiences, but an alternative cultural realm exists on the sidelines that is young, creative, developed, brazen, often minority-based or even majority-based but with an alternative perspective often overlooked in public policies. The current cultural system is highly complex and cultural policies must have a clear impact on this whole fabric, strengthening the aspects for which we are pioneers. It is necessary to critically analyse and bring up to date all sectoral plans that have been approved but not implemented due to lack of resources, administrative coordination and political will, and which benefitted from strong participation from all cultural sectors. It is similarly necessary to assess the impact, return and yield – in social and economic terms – stemming from the cultural sector, focussing on the development of people and not simply on the development of industries or facilities. --- ## ACTION 1.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-1 ### To boost and refocus investment in culture towards participation to ensure equity of access and equal opportunities for training and personal development Per capita investment in culture in Catalonia currently stands at €124/person, while the European average is €210/person, an amount we should aspire to reach. Moreover, since the dawn of self-government, cultural policy in Catalonia has centred on supporting the formation of cultural infrastructure geared to the creations and productions of traditional artistic sectors (music, dance, theatre, visual arts and cinema), and on funding the construction of relevant cultural venues to disseminate this type of artistic production. This need to establish basic artistic infrastructure, removed from the realm of education and learning, and the continued shortfall in resources for culture have led to the focus being more on the objects of culture rather than its subjects. We now need to gear efforts – and resources – to participation of citizens in culture, assuring equitable access and boosting opportunities for personal development and training. The Catalan Ministry of Culture accounts for 0.65% of the entire budget of the Government of Catalonia, whereas its counterpart in France accounts for 2.5% and in Portugal the figure is 1.8%. The 50% drop in the budget for culture of the Government of Catalonia from 2009 to the present time has led to a number of lines of support to cultural creation, production and promotion being withdrawn. In order to reach the equivalent sum of €210/person, cultural budgets and policies must be coordinated between the Government of Catalonia, provincial councils and local authorities under the umbrella of an effective cultural commonwealth. --- ## ACTION 1.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-2 ### To approve the statute of the artists to grant them the employment and financial security to which they are entitled as cultural workers Artists, creators and professionals in trades linked to the world of culture are experiencing highly worrying circumstances of financial and job insecurity, particularly now. The statute of the artists is a long-standing demand from the cultural and artistic sectors which calls for the establishment of a legal framework to guarantee the conditions needed for the performance of their activity. It sets out aspects such as training and educational background, recruitment, taxation and intellectual property, among other areas relating to the professional sphere of culture and the arts. Current regulations need to be amended to bring them in line with the professional circumstances of the sphere and to grant the employment and financial security to which artists are entitled. --- ## ACTION 1.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-3 ### To foster and build on the uses of Catalan on the Internet, equipping ourselves with cultural digital infrastructure New consumption models and the impact of digitalisation on the education system, the media and society in general mean that the future of Catalan will be played out on the Internet. It is vital to upgrade the tools that will enable us to firmly establish and build on our cultural identity in this increasingly dynamic global context. We need to provide ourselves with cultural digital infrastructure elements, such as the AINA project, promoted by Barcelona Supercomputing Center, to enable Catalan to be used in artificial intelligence systems; and to set up business and technological diplomacy mechanisms to allow us to go beyond the current vindicating activism and come to benefit from a service that promotes Catalan and proactively supports any company in the world to incorporate it within its options, an initiative especially addressed to mass digital service companies. It is also essential to set up a forum that underpins and strengthens a dynamic, vibrant ecosystem in Catalan online and to foster the creation of educational content and resources in audiovisual format that may be accessed over the Internet. Social use of the Catalan language should be encouraged, adopting policies focussing on social use among young people (among whom social use is below 43.2%) and among those born outside Catalonia (use below 8%). --- ## ACTION 1.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-4 ### To tackle the challenges of the digital and audiovisual sector, re-establishing the public media to become a driving force for innovation in terms of content, formats and distribution channels Public radio and television no longer suffice in order to further develop the digital and audiovisual sectors in Catalonia. There is a need to improve and ensure compliance with the laws protecting Catalan audiovisual production, and to reform the public media in terms of the governance, financing, transparency and efficiency of their professional teams, updating their goals in order for them to serve as a driving force for innovation in terms of content, formats and distribution channels. Public/private cooperation and new digital platforms should play an essential role in building a decisive setting for cultural participation that assures suitable levels of Catalan in order to guarantee the future of the language, with the ambition of becoming the digital and audiovisual hub of southern Europe with Catalan as a specialist instrument while also producing content in Spanish and English. --- ## ACTION 1.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-5 ### To coordinate community culture venues to encourage exchange and shared learning In order to guarantee social and cultural work from the most local standpoint it is necessary to benefit from a plan to detect, lend dignity to and coordinate all community culture venues to allow people to act, meet and energise culturally and socially. These voluntary work actors and organisations need to have institutional scenarios which allow them to enter into cooperation agreements relating to their activity and enabling their work to be dignified to steer them away from the competitiveness of subsidies and help them work freely from the front line, fostering cooperation between agents and the sharing of experiences, actions and lessons learnt. In locations where scope for action is identified but there is a shortage of venues, schools could offer the ideal arena; however, in addition, there is a need for a critical review of the 2010-2020 Plan for Cultural Facilities of Catalonia (PECCat), which is targeted at providing our towns with facilities to assure all citizens are granted access to culture, re-examining how it has been implemented and re-structuring the Plan taking into consideration the outlook up to 2030 and post-Covid needs, focussing particularly on planning and supporting pacts for regular community use of live music venues, which are at a genuine risk of dying out. It is also important to involve young people in examining the relationship that must be forged between the digital realm and participation in culture, associative life, social action and creativity after the pandemic. Moreover, it is also vital to look at the models that will be adopted by these community venues, new formats, participation differences in terms of genders and platforms. This programme should be devised and built on a philosophy of open innovation so that the learning experiences derived from it benefit the associative and educational communities. --- ## ACTION 1.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-6 ### To deliver the necessary planning, funding, activity coordination and shared international visibility to the major cultural infrastructure facilities of Catalonia The major cultural infrastructure facilities of Catalonia are trapped in an annual rationale of centre-by-centre negotiation and management of their excessively bureaucratic structures. A policy needs to be approved to secure budgetary stability and agreement concerning cultural policies among the various administrations involved (Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Provincial Council) through programme contracts that make it possible to act jointly with a global vision. In this respect, the aforesaid administrations must engage in joint negotiation with the Spanish Ministry of Culture to channel funds from central government in a more global manner rather than on a centre-by-centre basis and prevent the State from participating on the governing bodies of major cultural infrastructure facilities. It is necessary to acknowledge that, along with arts higher education institutions, these infrastructure facilities are artistic and formal research centres and, as such, they need specific regulations enabling them to manage and attract talent in a way akin to the process that applies to advanced research institutions in Catalonia. These major facilities should be used as the channel to promote the international flow of ideas, cultural projects, creators and professionals. Lastly, it is vital to set up teaching programmes in partnership with the entire education community (universities, teacher training institutes, schools and leisure education) that decisively transcend the logic of the commercial exchange by which they are currently compelled and which lead to cooperative educational work. --- ## ACTION 1.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-7 ### To incorporate artistic education into learning centres The educational community must benefit from the tools it needs to incorporate substantial, experience-based artistic education proposals and projects into school life, thereby enabling students to engage in culture. Along these lines, connections need to be generated and encouraged with artists to allow them to act and create connections in the community at the same time. This action is particularly important during (or from) primary education and can serve as a driving force to strengthen interdisciplinary knowledge by linking art with geography, sociology, poetry, politics and sciences. Artistic and humanistic studies should be taught during school hours; otherwise, they would only be accessible for those with sufficient resources or only delivered at institutions specialising in art and music. Artistic education is a right that guarantees universal access to the practice of the arts. One tool could involve setting up a directorate-general for arts teachings and education within the Catalan Ministry of Education. At present, these study programmes are the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Vocational Training and Special Teachings. --- ## ACTION 1.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-8 ### To encourage reading as a lifelong mechanism for skills development and critical thought We must foster the encouragement of reading in cooperation with the educational institutions of Catalonia to develop critical thought, to learn how to learn and to help build lifelong skills. The current reading plan for Catalonia – applicable until 2030 and recently approved through cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education – needs to be implemented correctly to have a decisive impact on the education system through students, teaching staff and educators to generate emotional settings that foster reading, comprehension, critical ability and creativity. At the same time, it is vital to promote local commerce through the network of bookshops and to foster the development of reading in conjunction with the educational community and the network of libraries. School libraries provide the gateway to universal reading and the "reading towns" project constitutes an excellent initiative. --- ## ACTION 1.9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-1/action-1-9 ### To rethink the National Council for Culture and the Arts The National Council for Culture and the Arts (CoNCA), set up in 2008, needs to be reconceived to achieve the following aims: for it to be transformed into an independent body for supervision and effective assessment of the benefits returned to society from the cultural action of all administrations of Catalonia; for it to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the actions carried out and funded using public resources; and, for it to guarantee coordination between all administrations and with the remaining private business and social initiatives. This can only be done by a body operating independently from the administration whose authority is based on the undeniable recognition and quality of its members and on the way they are elected, which calls for a reversal of the effects of the cutbacks stemming from the Omnibus Act and allows the CoNCA to report to and secure resources from the Parliament of Catalonia as an attached entity. --- ## GOAL 2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2 ### To speed up the transformation of the education system Education is an essential foundation of society, and in the midst of this period of change, it will become ever more necessary for our education system to prepare future citizens to play an active, transformative role in society. In this context, we consider it fundamental to attain educational transformation, to guarantee equity, to prevent school failure and to promote lifelong education. --- ## ACTION 2.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-1 ### To speed up educational transformation and establish a plan to make it digital There is a need for a plan that assures the gradual incorporation of schools into an education system centred on the comprehensive development of children, with a skill-based assessment and syllabus proposal which assures a personalised offer of support and guidance throughout the entire schooling period. The plan must be scalable to the whole of Catalonia, it must build on existing initiatives, it must assess quality on the basis of evidence from outcomes and it must ensure it has the tools needed to evaluate the processes. In this context it is necessary to redefine the digital infrastructure of institutions and the models needed in order to capitalise on technology with regard to content, educational materials, follow-up and assessment systems, as well as the operation of the institution. This should apply both in a classroom context and on a one-on-one and distributed learning basis to make sure all students are provided with access to electronic devices and connectivity, while assuring the security and confidentiality of their data. --- ## ACTION 2.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-2 ### To broaden the independence of education centres and strengthen education networks throughout Catalonia It is necessary to expand on the powers and functions of the teams, to boost their capacity to exert leadership when it comes to educational transformation and to incorporate efficient accountability processes. Along these lines, it is important to pick up on proposals made as a result of the Act on Education of Catalonia (LEC), and to encourage the formation of stable, cohesive educational teams by devising a new system for the recruitment and incorporation of individuals into teaching, broadening flexibility of secondment and progressing towards a single teaching staff body for compulsory stages. On a local and county level, it is necessary to extend and deliver funding for education plans and agreements, setting out priorities and planning their management in conjunction with stakeholders from the fields of education, social services, welfare and family, young people, employment and health. This must be done to ensure education networks address education both in and out of class and to guarantee coordination of initiatives and assessment of outcomes. Cooperation and coordinated work must bring about financial savings. --- ## ACTION 2.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-3 ### To guarantee balanced schooling and ensure universal access to first-cycle childhood education The handicap in access to education for ages 0-3 years particularly affects children from needy families, and social background is the primary cause behind differences in educational outcomes and expectations. Priority must be given to children at risk of poverty by offering grants to cover the direct and indirect costs of education and by launching campaigns to raise awareness and generate demand, particularly among vulnerable groups. Progress must be made with regard to the decree governing admission of students and balanced schooling that substantially reduces school segregation and achieves more equitable distribution of students must be assured. --- ## ACTION 2.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-4 ### To devise a plan to address school failure and early dropout by improving early diagnosis strategies and personalised monitoring Overall, although particularly with regard to children in a position of vulnerability, it is necessary to improve the strategies for diagnosing and monitoring learning disorders, and to follow up on cohorts of students in order to examine the reasons for these disorders and to set out specific plans. A reorganisation of the working hours and training of teaching staff will be necessary, with the same action applying to other professionals, in order to increase tutorial action and personalised guidance functions when necessary, above all at the most complex schools. --- ## ACTION 2.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-5 ### To enhance vocational training by fostering the dual education system and continuing education There is a lack of a coordinated approach to vocational training to ensure it is efficient, prestigious and relevant to each Catalan region. To achieve this, it is necessary to promote the Public Agency for Vocational Qualification and Training, pursue legislative changes and promote governance that encompasses enterprise, fostering the dual education system and adopting a practical approach centred on execution in the workplace. It is vital to promote advanced vocational training programmes and to ensure the institutions delivering them also provide continuing education. --- ## ACTION 2.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-2/action-2-6 ### To promote adult and second chance schools It is necessary to put various mechanisms in place to guarantee continuing lifelong training and refresher courses in order to provide the gateway for development potential and opportunities for everyone. This could first take the form of a proposal for professional training and second-chance academies for young people throughout Catalonia and, secondly, a review of the digital training portfolio already proposed in the LEC so it may be transformed into a lifelong resource with an open perspective that goes beyond formal education. --- ## GOAL 3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3 ### To create a comprehensive lifelong care and support system for people We propose developing a sustainable, comprehensive and preventative lifelong social, healthcare and support system for people encompassing aspects ranging from the gender perspective and the recognition of care work, the various forms of poverty, mental health, emotional wellbeing and the promotion of healthy habits and diets. --- ## ACTION 3.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-1 ### To set up a single body to mediate the health and social spheres, establishing a one-stop shop Many social and healthcare integration plans have already been devised in Catalonia (the Inter-sectoral and Inter-Departmental Public Health Plan-PINSAP, the Healthcare Infrastructure Action Plan-PAISS and the National Community Health and Primary Care Strategy Plan-ENAPISC, among others). However, in reality, although there are initiatives in certain regional settings and for a number of specific services (such as gender-based violence circuits), the public health system and the public social services system are entirely independent. It is vital to set up a body to mediate between the health and social spheres, thereby creating a comprehensive, integrated and preventive social and healthcare system founded on regional equity criteria which pools the relevant financial resources. A one-stop shop should be set up with a local-level focus managed by the closest public body and which benefits from decision-making authority, without falling into the trap of social services adopting a medically-oriented role. The cross-departmental nature of the services and the regional boards is a key aspect to ensuring all citizens are guaranteed access to the available services and resources that allow people to lead a dignified, healthy life with optimal independence. Indeed, health problems stem from genetics and clinical history, but above all they are triggered by socio-economic factors and habits. The social and health sectors must join forces in order to build priorities in terms of healthcare and social research, determining indicators and assessment systems to allow progress to be made when it comes to prevention, diagnosis and the identification of people's needs. It is also necessary to reach a common consensus policy for the non-academic transfer of scientific knowledge, which currently focuses on strictly healthcare-related knowledge. --- ## ACTION 3.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-2 ### To establish the social worker as a person of reference for everybody universally from the day we are born At present in Catalonia everyone has access to a doctor or family GP, whereas access to a social worker is mired in stigma. It is clear that we must help persons who are in extreme situations (suffering addictions, mental health problems, extreme poverty, social exclusion, etc.). However, the coronavirus has highlighted the fact that the risk of ending up in vulnerable circumstances can arise all of a sudden, despite having formerly been in a comfortable social position. We must establish the social worker as a person of reference from the day we are born, regardless of age, and everyone must have universal access to a professional of reference who can support them with their vital development, particularly in the most difficult times or at a major turning point in life, adopting a holistic perspective to strengthen the relationship between the individual and the community, and integrating the educational, cultural, healthcare and social dimensions. --- ## ACTION 3.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-3 ### To implement an act governing action in the area of person-centred service aside from the Act on Public Sector Contracts Services for which an invitation to tender is issued are governed by the Act on Public Sector Contracts, which regulates any procurement by the administration but this act is not suitable for social services in view of their specific nature. There is a need to benefit from an act governing action in the area of person-centred service that assures the protection of social rights, the general interest and quality in the care delivered to people (particularly the most vulnerable). It must acknowledge the specific nature and relevance of care services for people and ensure coverage is achieved. In line with the scope permitted by national and European regulations, it must determine the management of services for individuals outside the Act on Public Sector Contracts, underpinned by non-profit social initiative as a strategic ally. This non-contractual formula guarantees efficiency and the maximum social return from public resources based on management that restricts financial interest, reinvests any surplus and is founded on dialogue and joint responsibility in order to achieve shared goals: the defence of social rights and the improvement of citizens' quality of life. --- ## ACTION 3.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-4 ### To pass an act for organising occupations in the care sector ensuring equity in terms of salaries and employment conditions regardless of whether individuals work in the social or healthcare sectors There are currently various remuneration models for the same professional category depending on whether an individual is employed in the health sector or the social field. This disparity already existed within the health sector itself and it was standardised some time ago. Likewise, it is necessary to train professionals of geriatric care in a broader range of skills to allow them to perform duties pertaining both to nursing and clinical care. This figure is logical within the sphere of both dependent and long-term care. Consequently, an act must be established to legally organise the professions in the social sphere to ensure financial recognition is granted to the professional careers of all workers in the care field (in both the health and social sectors), delivering equity in salaries and employment conditions for professionals, regardless of whether they are working in the healthcare or social spheres, and defining a guaranteed continuing training plan. --- ## ACTION 3.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-5 ### To measure and showcase the economic value of unpaid care work and adopt measures to steer us towards joint responsibility from a standpoint of gender equity There is genuine unawareness with regard to the scope and significance of unpaid work relating to care for people. A thorough, systematic analysis must be carried out on the economic value of this unpaid care work, which is largely performed by women, in relation to the opportunity cost (lost work), the contribution to GDP and the hours of work (use of time surveys). In 2017, the Observatory for the Woman, Enterprise and Economy quantified these three parameters, and we propose incorporating them into the economic indicators. It will be vital to disseminate these findings to contribute to the recognition by society of care work and to encourage joint responsibility in care tasks from the standpoint of gender equality. --- ## ACTION 3.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-6 ### To ensure decent employment contracts for people working in domestic roles and care for dependent persons assuring social protection and a dignified retirement Royal Decree 1620/2011, of 14 November, regulates the special employment relationship surrounding the domestic service, whereby persons employed in domestic roles and care for dependent persons are not entitled to unemployment benefits and do not receive sick pay from the State in the event of illness until the 9th day. In practice, they often do not have an employment contract and are not registered with social security; therefore, they are working without benefits and upon retirement are not entitled to any pension. It is vital to assure that older adults (aged 40 to 60 years), largely women, who are employed in domestic and care roles for dependent persons at their households (many of them with a migrant background) are given employment contracts standardised on the general social security system, guaranteeing they are enabled suitable social protections (in the event of illness or for holidays, etc.) and a decent retirement. --- ## ACTION 3.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-7 ### To transform the home care model by strengthening the community setting, prediction, prevention and professional and technological support Life expectancy is rising, as is population ageing, with a clear desire on the part of individuals to continue to live in their homes for as long as possible. The Act on Dependency is under-funded; therefore, the care received by individuals at home falls below the level they actually need (the average being 1 hour per week). Bearing in mind that in Europe overall 1.3 million more home care professionals will be needed over the coming years, that current funding falls below the required levels and that life expectancy is increasing, the present-day prescription and care model will become unsustainable. At present, the families themselves supplement the shortcomings in the public response with private services, largely delivered by domestic workers on a temporary, informal basis, meaning that the ratio of one professional for each individual requiring care is also unsustainable in time, aside from being a labour model that makes the sector hugely unstable; a situation modern society must end. In addition, the technology applied to date based on telecare has been reactive and it cannot envisage risk situations with people. It is thus essential to transform the domestic care model, to make it accessible for all life stages and to strengthen the community setting, prediction, prevention and professional and technological support in order to enhance efficiency and make it sustainable and universal. It is necessary to heighten coverage according to people's actual needs, and both the individual and the care setting must be incorporated into decisions regarding the services that are needed. Emphasis will be placed on strengthening the community setting through the various personal or local networks and through ongoing support, with respite for carers. --- ## ACTION 3.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-8 ### To extend the minimum income guarantee to reduce the alarming gap between the number of current beneficiaries and the number of persons living in severe material deprivation and at risk of poverty Until an unconditional universal basic income is established in Europe, there is a need to expand the cover delivered by the minimum income guarantee for citizens (the RGC, approved in 2017 in Catalonia following a popular legislative initiative) increasing the number of recipients at least fourfold to reduce the alarming gap between the number of current beneficiaries of the RGC and the number of persons living in severe material deprivation and at risk of poverty. The RGC must identify priority groups (children, single-parent families, young people, women victims of male violence, people who are out of work and/or who are experiencing severe material deprivation) with the aim of achieving equal opportunities and a regional rebalancing. The RGC must enable individuals to overcome the various moments in life (a range of employment circumstances, for example) and to envisage the potential route out of each situation, preventing an everlasting wheel of instability or exclusion. In other words, it should be done in a way that does not penalise the recipients (by cancelling the benefit) if they find a short-term casual job, as this will plunge them back into poverty once the job ends. Prior to the pandemic, there were around 140,000 persons in receipt of the RGC, while the number living in severe material deprivation stood at 440,000 and the number of people at risk of poverty (according to the AROPE indicator of 23.6%) was 1,770,000. Amid the pandemic – with the economic and social crisis it has triggered – between January and September 2020 only an additional 12,000 persons have benefitted from the RGC. --- ## ACTION 3.9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-9 ### To deliver support and social integration for persons suffering mental health conditions and disabilities to enable them to live a full life with personal independence Particular care needs to be taken when supporting persons suffering mental health conditions and disabilities to enable them to live a full life with personal independence. It is also necessary to ensure that they have access to support, community activities, a secure job linked to the business sphere that is best adapted to their functional diversity and housing suited to their needs in the town where they live, whether this is an individual or shared apartment, a residence or therapeutic community, or a flat in a block of socially inclusive housing. At present, the circuit for access to all these support services which would allow for personal independence and self-fulfilment is complicated and the waiting times for access are slow, with responsibility for certain activities left entirely in the hands of private associations. --- ## ACTION 3.10 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-3/action-3-10 ### To set out a national plan to combat male violence that focusses on women and makes it possible to assess the level of implementation and efficiency of existing circuits During the Covid-19 pandemic, calls to the support line due to male violence increased by 24.5%. In 2020, April to June saw the highest number of calls logged at 35.2% of the total. Catalan Act 5/2008, of 24 April, on the right of women to eradicate male violence, set out a guiding protocol that needed to be implemented in Catalonia, but in the assessment conducted ten years later only 5 circuits had been put in place at supracounty level, with no leadership, while there are still no more in the rest of Catalonia. Article 80 also envisaged the Catalan Women's Institute serving as the component underpinning coordination. In practice, the quality of care provided to women depends on the level of commitment of each professional, and the most senior associations – such as Tamaia, which fostered care for victims of violence founded on a restorative, receptive attitude – have closed their doors due to lack of material and financial backing from institutions. The issue is serious because women undergo a number of years – eight on average – suffering as victims of male violence before deciding to resort to any kind of go-to resource, and the time they take to gain access to sheltered housing is six months. A national plan to combat male violence is needed which focusses on women and makes it possible to carry out a number of actions: to assess the level of implementation of the framework protocol and the efficiency of existing integrated circuits (health and social); to provide continuing training for the various professionals intervening in detection, reception and support; to set up circuits in regions that do not have one and to ensure the coordination of each circuit benefits from political leadership; to increase the allocation of human and material resources in order to address all these needs; and to compile comprehensive statistics on the actions carried out (women supported, places at shelters, etc.), with an estimate on unmet demand for these types of care and support services. --- ## GOAL 4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4 ### To promote decent, affordable and sustainable housing as a mechanism to combat inequalities Decent access to dignified housing is a vital mechanism for social development, combating inequalities and protecting vulnerable groups. It is essential to significantly increase affordable housing stocks. Approved in 2007, the Regional and Sectoral Housing Plan of Catalonia, which expected to create 245,000 new affordable homes over a 15-year period in areas of high demand, has fallen hugely short of its targets. For instance, in 2019 a total of 8,831 homes were completed only 945 of which benefitted from some level of social protection. --- ## ACTION 4.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-1 ### To establish an impact plan for affordable housing throughout Catalonia to enable 10% of housing to be publicly owned within ten years A determined, initial intervention must be carried out in order to address the structural shortcomings in terms of affordable and social housing and to bring us closer to meeting the target of creating a public housing stock that can be maintained and expanded in time. A comprehensive policy is needed to enable 10% of housing to be publicly owned within ten years. To achieve this, it is necessary to promote a plan from a regional perspective suited to the scale of each municipality, steering away from the segregated mass housing projects of former times in preference of numerous smaller housing operations unfolding simultaneously which are integrated into the existing fabric. The outcome must be an affordable and social housing policy supported by excellent town planning, an active policy to set aside and expand public land, and a plan of actions with a timescale in all municipalities in Catalan territory. This initial intervention will mean that, during the term of office currently commencing, 60% of the public housing needed to reach the overall figure of 10% within ten years will need to be built. To achieve this, determined, swift and specific measures are required, such as: stopping the sale of public land; mobilising land reserved for protected housing; shortening deadlines in the progression of projects; simplifying regulations; mobilising empty apartments, encouraging mandatory assignment of use to expand the public stock; and upgrading the housing appraisal system according to energy efficiency and the versatility and durability of the structures built. With this host of measures, the construction of public housing for social renting – always under stringent public supervision – can be funded through public/private cooperation models: assignment of public land under building lease by means of public invitations to tender for planning, construction and subsequent maintenance in order to build and manage a social housing development under an affordable renting system for a sufficient period of time in order to recover the initial investments, with transparency mechanisms in terms of the overall costs of the planning, construction and management, and with regard to the income from rental and maintenance charges. Once the surface right period has expired, the land and the building must be reinstated into the assets of the public administration. --- ## ACTION 4.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-2 ### To prioritise refurbishment instead of demolition and construction of new housing It is important to foster a new culture of refurbishment throughout Catalonia that prioritises refurbishment, expansion and transformation instead of demolition or the conversion of rural land into urban land. This will help to achieve a more compact, cohesive territory and will help to reduce Catalonia's environmental footprint. Certain specific actions may include: only authorising demolition in highly justified circumstances (economic or physical ruin); building and tax incentives to promote the energy rehabilitation of the housing stock built before 1970; offering public grants directly for associations of owners in order to refurbish properties to reduce energy consumption and improve building security; promoting comprehensive refurbishment areas through a cooperation model; and, above all, expediting the processing of building licences along with all other permits associated with development (public highway occupation, cranes, no parking spots, demolition, provisional site meters, etc.), increasing densities where feasible and mapping out and determining the existing housing stock to combat overcrowding and substandard housing. --- ## ACTION 4.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-3 ### To monitor supply and demand for public housing to better match them by coordinating local and regional policies and overseeing the achievement of annual targets It is important to monitor the annual volume of public housing produced, assuring a minimum number of affordable homes to be built or refurbished every year. This monitoring will make it possible to better coordinate local processes with regional policies and focus supply in those locations where a greater level of demand is reported. Every month, it will be necessary to publish the plans drawn up, taken through the approval stage, under construction and delivered throughout Catalonia as a whole, comparing the supply of public apartments created with the demand in each town and region. --- ## ACTION 4.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-4 ### To coordinate housing policy with social services to promptly cover emergency situations and benefit from a system of special assistance grants while the pool of public housing is expanded over the next 10 years The issue of housing must be tackled from a comprehensive standpoint (covering town planning, social, legal, financial and environmental aspects) ensuring affordable housing is made available to those who need it the most as quickly as possible. In order to be in a position to deliver these targets, the Catalan Housing Agency must be assigned greater resources, with a specific focus on dealing with the emergency with capacity and means to deliver an immediate, effective response, and with its own stock to deal with vulnerable cases. While the public housing stock is expanded over the next 10 years, there will be a requirement to provide public grants for vulnerable groups and families to be able to pay for housing. Accordingly, the regulation on rental prices will need to be subject to continued application while the pools of rental housing held by the public administration will need to be promoted, including apartments from the private stock in exchange for guarantees for landlords who make their apartments available for the pool of social rental, while implementing the second-chance scheme in the event of non-payment of mortgages and rental. Lastly, an impact plan is necessary in order to lift all individuals recorded on the emergency helpdesk out of deprivation – an estimated 3,000 people – and who are currently in hotels and hostels, meaning they are housed at a higher cost than they would be if definitive homes were built. --- ## ACTION 4.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-5 ### To foster specific actions for high density urban areas guaranteeing affordable housing within a city model of integrated mixed uses Dense urban areas carry huge scope for regeneration, densification and re-planning of disused land; however, in these locations the challenge of affordability is even greater. Steering away from the segregated mass housing models of former times, it is appropriate to commit to the implementation of innovative measures which, for instance, favour changes of use of empty ground floor premises and apartments to create new homes, while ensuring a balance of a mixed, walkable city with local shops. Moreover, is it essential to lay out a new clear and efficient regulation for the classification of apartments for tourist use in legal, tax and urban development terms. --- ## ACTION 4.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-1/goal-4/action-4-6 ### To foster specific actions for the countryside as part of the overall strategy to repopulate empty areas Unlike dense urban areas, the countryside has undergone depopulation in recent decades. To achieve greater regional balance and ease the pressures on denser urban areas, it is necessary to promote the construction of social housing units to home families and young people in smaller settlements needing repopulation. This can be done by strategically distributing affordable apartments and introducing tax incentives for the refurbishment and recovery of country house estates. It is hugely important for these local housing plans to be programmed in coordination with the construction and delivery of the necessary public service infrastructure (in terms of education, health, etc.) in order to receive the new community. --- ## SPHERE 2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2 ### A competitive economy based on talent and innovation The coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on business in Catalonia. It has endangered the very survival of many companies and families and has underlined the need to redouble strategic commitments, to improve basic infrastructure and to boost levels of innovation and digitalisation while making them more sustainable. --- ## GOAL 5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5 ### To innovate in traditional and new sectors to reassert our status in the world Competitiveness depends more than ever on our ability to swiftly incorporate innovation into organisational structures and business models and processes, focussing particularly on green innovation linked to sustainability, and blue innovation linked to high complexity, which leads to products, services and entire industries that deliver high social and economic returns. Innovation in traditional sectors of the economy, such as commerce, tourism and logistics, is also vital. Improving our ability to innovate will be reliant on the enhancement of our enterprising ecosystems and on our capacity to transform research into knowledge transfer. --- ## ACTION 5.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-1 ### To set up a permanent interdisciplinary panel to innovate in regulation in key areas in order to modernise Catalonia Throughout this report actions are put forward in a range of fields which call for a new innovative legislative framework. Catalonia has not capitalised on its autonomy to legislate in fields which fall under its responsibility and this lack of regulation is making it impossible to implement many of the changes driven by Europe. A proposal is put forward to set up a permanent panel of lawyers under the most appropriate formal structure to centre on review, development and innovation of regulation. The panel will regulate those spheres where we experience shortcomings in our own legislation, such as the recycling industry, green energy, best environmental practices, digital platforms, technological infrastructure, election processes and many others. The panel must be composed of politically independent individuals, disassociated from lobbies, with accredited expertise in the sphere of study and with knowledge of Catalonia and its spectrum of ideas, and also aware of legislative experiences of reference at European level. --- ## ACTION 5.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-2 ### To review, develop and innovate in taxation, transforming it into an instrument to help achieve Catalonia's development goals The review, development and innovation of taxation in Catalonia must become a permanent activity, transforming taxation into an instrument that helps to achieve Catalonia's goals. It is true that there are appealing measures that may only be conceived under State legislation; however, it is also the case that in Catalonia we benefit from sufficient autonomy to improve the tax legislation we are responsible for. In this respect, certain key measures should be introduced, such as those linked to simplifying taxation for the self-employed, applying exemptions to profits that are reinvested into the digital transformation of SMEs and the training of their workers, or tax support for setting up companies in weak or emerging sectors, reviewing the taxes applicable to cooperatives to enable the effective development of new formulas. There is similarly a need to approve a new act – which has been extensively worked on and is largely expected – which adapts the tax incentives for private holding of stakes in activities of general interest to the socio-economic circumstances, laying the foundation for patronage and philanthropy in Catalonia. This act will need to set out certain priority activities – determined in consensus with the sectors involved (social action, culture, investigation and research) – and it will have to strengthen innovative patronage instruments, such as micropatronage, crowdfunding or the creation of special funds. It is also necessary to expand on the powers of the Catalan Tax Authority in the areas of tax evasion and tax equity, for example by bringing the tax burden that applies to the commercial sector in line with that faced by global digital platforms that capitalise on tax benefits to dominate local markets. --- ## ACTION 5.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-3 ### To reform the Catalan Competition Authority to assign it the strength needed to ensure competition on markets and prosecute cases of abuse of a dominant position In order to guarantee broader efficiency, lower market prices and improved social wellbeing, it is vital to ensure market competition and to prosecute cases of abuse of a dominant position. To make sure the current Catalan Competition Authority can effectively perform this task, it must be increasingly assigned a larger budget and highly qualified professionals, whilst also being assured independence from the political establishment. Its goals must be broader than they currently are and enable proactive action in the preparation of specific recommendations and in the uncovering and investigation of cases. At least once a year it is also necessary for it to report on its actions to the Parliament, which must acknowledge receipt of the regulatory proposals and recommendations made by the Catalan Competition Authority and deliver a public response to them. --- ## ACTION 5.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-4 ### To restructure, innovate and foster the Employment Service of Catalonia to proactively deal with the industrial revolution 4.0, which entails a radical transformation of the labour market We are facing a new industrial revolution that is transforming the labour market. On an international scale, it has been effectively determined which work places are disappearing and it is therefore necessary to think ahead by delivering training to adapt them to changes and to shorten the time for incorporation into potential new work places. The Catalan Employment Service must develop into a proactive service that anticipates changes and acts before a job is lost, particularly when it comes to job losses caused by the mass incorporation of new technologies. The Catalan Employment Service must benefit from support from the education institutions of Catalonia (at secondary and university level) in order to expand training capacity and it must also contribute resolutely to devising measures to encourage the active search for work and the improvement of employment. --- ## ACTION 5.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-5 ### To incorporate green innovation into the traditional industrial fabric by producing pharmaceutical and textile products, among others, for the European market and by spearheading part of the environmentally-responsible global industry The shifting of industrial production from Europe to Asia or North Africa has reduced production costs and delivered lower consumer prices over recent decades. However, combating climate change means we must reduce our environmental impact in every respect, and this gives Catalonia the opportunity to recover part of its industrial production by making use of more productive and environmentally friendly technologies. Indeed, the Green New Deal promoted by European funds paves the way to embarking on a competitive industrial policy with a forward-looking perspective linked to the production of pharmaceutical and textile products, among others, aimed at the European market without environmental dumping. We benefit from the infrastructure, the knowledge, the expertise and the historical opportunity to achieve this. One proposal, thus, is to develop a renewed Catalan industry that produces a range of labelled products with environmental guarantees, acting as a pioneer for a sector of the global industry that is responsible to the planet. --- ## ACTION 5.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-6 ### To devise a plan of action for the circular economy to boost business competitiveness, technological innovation and the creation of stable employment in order to enhance the environmental sustainability of a new production and consumption model In line with European guidelines, it is vital to set out a plan of action to boost the circular economy in Catalonia, since it is restorative and regenerative, in order to create an industrial strategy based on a new production and consumption model. Specific grant plans must be drawn up for production companies that reuse materials or that incorporate recycled materials and waste, enforcing stringent compliance with environmental legislation and the fight against planned obsolescence. Organisational innovation on a circular economy model must encourage business competitiveness, technological innovation and the creation of stable employment. --- ## ACTION 5.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-7 ### To set up 15 urban economic promotion hubs in at least 10 towns and cities in Catalonia The Executive Committee of the Government of Catalonia approved Act 15/2020, of 22 December, on the urban economic promotion hubs (UEPHs). The UEPHs constitute a tool to boost areas of economic concentration (in commercial, industrial or service terms). Their goal is to lay the foundations for a new management model based on public/private cooperation. The implementation of the first UEPHs will need to rely on impetus from the public sector to ensure they act as a benchmark and, thus, can be replicated and firmly established throughout Catalonia. In this respect, it is necessary to select 10 Catalan towns and cities where the implementation of the first 15 UEPHs can be fostered. Aside from the aspects outlined in the aforesaid act, the practical implementation must meet the following requirements: sustainability (specific conditions of the hubs based on sustainable urban development), professionalism (management team and skills centred on the management of commercial hubs and adaptation of commerce to new technologies) and digitalisation (plan for adaptation of the hubs based on a multi-channel network, knowledge management, data analysis and identification of consumer behaviour). This measure seeks to raise additional funds from the private sector to reinvest them into improving urban development and economic revitalisation throughout Catalonia, and to ensure that small- and medium-sized traders set up at urban shopping areas are more competitive by providing them with management tools to operate on a level footing with their competitors in shopping centres. Lastly, the formation of an office to combine all the UEPHs that are set up in Catalonia is proposed with two aims: to act as a setting for training and knowledge for managers of the UEPHs in all their operational areas; and, to serve as a forum for the sharing of information and the development of a shared, open data management model. --- ## ACTION 5.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-8 ### To set up the office for the digitalisation of SME commerce to provide comprehensive support for adapting to online markets SMEs have fewer resources to be in a position to digitalise their business. The goal of this office will be to advise and support SMEs and cooperatives on the process of digitalisation and adaptation to online markets, helping them to develop and coordinate sustainable zero-mile logistics systems, making the most of technology to improve data analysis, identifying changes in consumer behaviour, encouraging training and knowledge transfer between the technology sector and commercial companies. --- ## ACTION 5.9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-9 ### To establish urban logistics hubs to streamline last-mile delivery and the structuring of efficient, sustainable omni-channel commerce Sustainability in urban mobility is one of the major challenges of the Green New Deal and future cities. Accessibility to city centres and streamlining of last-mile distribution is vital when it comes to the structuring of efficient, sustainable omni-channel commerce. New zero-mile logistics models must be promoted based on sustainable, efficient distribution and collection hubs. The creation of urban logistics hubs is proposed to streamline last-mile delivery and to create urban click & collect points by taking advantage of empty establishments, underground premises and car parks. --- ## ACTION 5.10 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-10 ### To redirect the tax on stays in tourism establishments to improving the protection and recovery of the environment and Catalan heritage Act 57/2017 envisages the creation of a tax on overnight stays in tourist establishments, known as the "tourist tax", applicable to visitor stays in Catalonia in all types of accommodation. At present, part of these resources is allocated to the Catalan Tourist Board for its promotion activities while the remainder is distributed among several local administrations. Most of these resources are geared to promotion, although article 49b of the aforesaid act also envisages a proportion needing to be earmarked for "the promotion of sustainable, responsible, quality tourism and the protection, preservation, recovery and improvement of tourist resources". Before the pandemic, more than 60 million euros were raised every year. It is proposed to reform the tax and to redirect the funds by reaching a consensus with agents from the various tourist areas of Catalonia to channel the resources raised for purposes that bring about a direct return to society. The allocation of the tax may vary according to tourist areas, whereby it may be earmarked for protecting natural, cultural or historic heritage, among others. In any event, tourists must be informed that they are contributing to the enhancement of the Catalan setting and heritage, and society must perceive tourism as contributing to this enhancement. --- ## ACTION 5.11 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-11 ### To set up a tourist guidance system that combines artificial intelligence tools with a new public/private governance model to improve the link between supply and demand The restructuring of the tourist model is geared to greater diversification of products and increasing segmentation; however, the marketing system is very rigid and hinders supply and demand from being aligned. The development of artificial intelligence tools applied to tourist marketing may become the catalyst the sector needs to regain ground in a post-Covid world. The creation of a multi-platform digital setting is proposed which will enable product and destination searches to be performed and will be connected to booking and information systems. During the pre-journey stage, this system should make it possible to widen the product focus and the portfolio of available activities, while dividing visitors up according to interests. In the after-journey stage, it should encourage loyalty and engage potential influencers. This system should make it easier to compile useful information for the sector and contribute to enhanced productivity. This new tourist promotion model calls for public/private cooperation and entails reorganising the governance of the sector. Positive examples of governance can be seen in the French model: "À tout France - Agence de développement touristique de la France" and, particularly relevant to Barcelona, the English model: "London & Partners", in which more than tourism is promoted. --- ## ACTION 5.12 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-5/action-5-12 ### To create a tourist innovation platform to link the experience of a well-established sector with a scarce history of innovation to other highly innovative sectors in order to improve the sector's competitiveness The scope for growth of tourism in Catalonia is restricted. The recent 2018-2022 Strategic Tourism Plan for Catalonia set a goal of 34 million visitors by 2030. With a visitor limit, the competitiveness of the sector relies on the huge contribution of R&D&I which must make it possible to improve the tourist offering and raise prices. The set-up of a forum for cooperation has been proposed to link the experience of a well-established sector with a scarce history of innovation (tourism) to other sectors that may have a direct impact on tourism, such as automation processes, new architecture, process design, data management or energy efficiency. The junction between tourism and other fields with a high rate of innovation must bring about an improvement in competitiveness for the Catalan tourist sector, and it should also enable this innovation to be exported on the international stage. This forum could take the form of a tourist innovation platform under public leadership, formed by agents from the tourist sector and from the various fields of innovation in order to incorporate the medium of R&D&I into the tourist sector over the coming decade. --- ## GOAL 6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6 ### To achieve food and energy sovereignty We deem sovereignty as referring to leadership in terms of design and self-sufficient management in the short-, medium- and long-term, staying ahead of forthcoming transformation, of two pillars of the Catalan economy: energy and food. Both pillars have in common the need to become more modern based on the paradigm of sustainability and zero-mile production, and they carry huge scope for the future competitiveness of the Catalan economy. --- ## ACTION 6.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-1 ### To firmly encourage the creation of zero-mile sustainable energy by fostering a technical study to establish the energy source that is best suited to each sector or local area within six months The major energy companies have not made the shift to renewable energies as demanded by Europe. Moreover, we have the highest energy prices in the European Union, shrinking the wellbeing of families and the competitiveness of companies. In this respect, it has been proposed that no authorisation be granted to set up any other energy production plant that does not deliver renewable energy and is not a suitable size in order to produce local energy. Moreover, as Catalonia has a hugely varied territory, a host of similarly differing solutions are required in order to ensure the natural environment is respected while addressing the various needs. For example, industrial estates have a range of energy requirements according to the type of industry. The tourist sector and the countryside as well, and homes also rely on varying energy needs. Nevertheless, in all cases the change of model must incorporate the generation of renewable energy, independently or as part of a consortium, always locally and in a green, sustainable manner. To do this, within a period of six months a strategic technical framework must be set out to establish how each energy source type (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydraulic, etc.) fits in with the various regions and the varying types of usage (families, associations of owners, companies, industrial estates, public buildings, etc.). In addition, an innovative regulatory framework will need to be put in place to facilitate this transition. --- ## ACTION 6.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-2 ### To set aside public land for local-scale public/private energy plants It is necessary to build public/private energy facilities always with the twofold aim of working towards the goal of producing zero-mile energy while at the same time enhancing the wellbeing of society. Along these lines, the municipalities will need to change the uses of the communal land earmarked by assigning space to set up energy infrastructure. However, the scheme is not about assigning public land to contribute to the private profits of companies; rather, the aim is to apply public/private cooperation mechanisms whereby the profits revert back to the community at large. By pursuing a specific approach involving the type of collaborative governance applied in certain industrial estates, settlements, small towns or specific neighbourhoods, it will be necessary to set up consortiums for the operation of facilities in order to effectively generate these local renewable energies. --- ## ACTION 6.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-3 ### To offer grants, tax incentives and support to achieve energy sovereignty in family homes Families, companies and administrations must be jointly responsible for achieving energy sovereignty, each within their financial means. So that families can make the shift to the new energy model it is necessary to provide them with comprehensive support in the form of a public body of technical advisors to endorse the future investment entailed by generating their own renewable energy. In this respect, town councils will need to prepare a local plan to ensure the smooth development of local energy facilities and they will need guidance from this public body to guarantee that formulas affordable by all citizens are put in place to help implement the production and consumption of zero-mile renewable energies. Lines of tax incentives for families will also be a significant factor while it is advisable to also deliver a range of additional policies, as well as making permits for tax on buildings, facilities and works (ICOI) free of charge, applying the minimum real estate tax (IBI) rate and providing local subsidies, particularly for rural and isolated homes. In addition, each local area will need to benefit from land, infrastructure and public resources in order to produce renewable energy for its citizens. Moreover, a supra-municipal grant plan will be needed to cover the lack of means affecting many local areas. --- ## ACTION 6.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-4 ### "E-car friendly Catalonia": to implement a public/private infrastructure plan for charging points throughout Catalonia to boost the market for electric vehicles Transport is behind a high percentage of CO2 emissions in the European Union. The future depends on the electrification of transport, and in order to encourage this change of model a public/private infrastructure plan needs to be developed and implemented throughout Catalonia for charging points to boost the market for electric vehicles. This is essential in order to meet the requirements of the EU Directive target of reaching under 60 g/km of CO2 by 2030. An "E-car friendly Catalonia" can appeal to companies with scope for making the necessary investments for the vertical integration of electric batteries across Catalonia, strengthening our automotive industry and generating new industries linked to technological change. --- ## ACTION 6.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-5 ### To promote responsible public purchasing of local, green produce to strengthen the viability of the Catalan agri-food cooperative and business sector A proposal has been made to encourage responsible public purchasing of local, green produce by the various Catalan administrations, fostering local, sustainable produce and strengthening the viability of the Catalan agri-food cooperative and business sector. This dynamic can be extrapolated to private organisations operating in public services, such as school or hospital canteens by setting it out as an essential requisite in the administrative and technical stipulations applicable for eligibility to bid in the relevant tender processes. --- ## ACTION 6.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-6 ### To foster the development of the local Catalan agri-food infrastructure network by encouraging public/private investment It is necessary to structure and strengthen the local Catalan agri-food infrastructure network to allow micro and small enterprises to produce, prepare, transform and distribute their foods. This type of infrastructure has a supramunicipal impact and responsibility for it is incumbent on various administrations. Accordingly, all public and private organisations involved need to coordinate their efforts to promote these local agri-food facilities. In order to make determined progress along these lines, the Government of Catalonia must draw up a strategic local agri-food infrastructure plan in coordination with the remaining public administrations operating in the region. Beneficiary organisations (agri-food companies and their professional associations) should also take part in the process in order to map out the needs and get them involved in the investments needed for the resulting model. --- ## ACTION 6.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-7 ### To structure comprehensive agricultural rejuvenation programmes adapted to the new economic and social reality of the Catalan countryside It is essential to structure comprehensive agricultural rejuvenation programmes, both when family agricultural businesses are passed down within the family or sold to third parties, adapted to the new economic and social reality of the Catalan countryside. It is important to organise comprehensive programmes on a supramunicipal scale to address the challenge of agricultural rejuvenation from a comprehensive standpoint, delivering innovative new tools and facilitating the transition to agroecology. These programmes must be defined locally, in coordination with the organisations involved (offices of the Catalan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, local action groups, county councils, town councils, professional agricultural organisations, agricultural cooperatives, agricultural consultancy organisations, agricultural training academies, etc.) to ensure the diagnosis is accurate and in keeping with reality, making it possible to launch various solutions, such as a land bank, an agricultural test site to enable the incorporation of new farmers, or projects such as support when passing down the family agricultural business. A mentor figure is also suggested in order to promote knowledge transfer linked to farming. --- ## ACTION 6.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-8 ### To strive for environmental integration of food companies through a public/private cooperation plan to enable this The food sector is essential to the Catalan economy. A significant share of activity takes place in companies that generate negative externalities, particularly associated with the environment, such as excess water consumption, techniques that impoverish soils or excess livestock excrement. To improve these areas, vertical integration of environmental responsibility in the food sector is needed and it is incumbent on the public administration and the food companies to put tools and resources in place to encourage a transition to more environmentally friendly and sustainable models for the food sovereignty of future generations. It is vital to update and monitor plans for environmental integration and improvement, reduction and management of livestock excrement and reconversion to sustainable fishing, livestock farming and agriculture. --- ## ACTION 6.9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-9 ### To apply artificial intelligence to the fishing and agricultural product market so it reduces costs, stabilises the market, improves prices and increases competitiveness It is hard to imagine that a 5G connection will be available throughout the whole countryside in the coming years. At the same time, it is vital to foster the digital interconnection of production, sales, consumption and price control. The proposal has been made to use artificial intelligence tools to put together a broad market for all agricultural, livestock and fisheries products which must lead to the reduction of costs, the stabilisation of the market, the improvement of prices and the enhancement of competitiveness. It will also allow for real-time monitoring of the market and control on the prices, source and destination of products. It should similarly make it possible to immediately channel grants to producers to face the changes happening on the market and, in short, to succeed in stabilising the revenue of producers. This action involves the arrival of the Internet of Things and machine learning in the Catalan primary sector, and it should allow us to be leaders in Europe. --- ## ACTION 6.10 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-6/action-6-10 ### To set up a public think tank to offer advice on innovative management of fishing, forestry, livestock and agricultural sites Small sites that do not benefit from the support needed to most effectively unfold their activities are prevalent in Catalonia. A solution is required to enable them to expedite administrative procedures and ensure the sector has the scope to adapt to innovations in production and the lines of grants available. Major companies have an advantage because they benefit from the advice needed, and such advice must also be guaranteed for smaller, typically family companies. It is important to provide a customised, quality service that allows the sector to adopt broader professionalism and to suitably channel existing human and economic resources to the various relevant public and private organisations. To strengthen this public/private cooperation, a public body formed by highly-trained experts who are familiar with the sector is required. These experts would operate in a networked manner, in coordination with food research institutions to assure continuing innovation in the sector. The primary goal of this think tank must be to draw up a plan for each site, to assess the production quality and potential of it, and to devise an operating model that takes into consideration the potential need for transformation of products, incorporation of ecological protocols, renewal of infrastructure and feasible boosts to revenue, among other aspects. The goals, investments and actions to be implemented in due course will be inferred from this plan. The experts will also be in charge of processing the necessary grants. The aim is to provide comprehensive support for the countryside, prioritising smaller sites to steer them towards agroecological models. --- ## GOAL 7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7 ### To strengthen knowledge building and its social and industrial exploitation The potential for creating knowledge and developing innovations from it exists in all echelons of society. Among other examples, knowledge may be generated by individuals unfolding their professional activities at universities, research institutions, companies (new and established), hospitals, governments, investment institutions and non-profit organisations. Accordingly, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, civil servants and citizens in general are in a position to create new knowledge. The nature of the knowledge one or other category of people creates is highly different, although they all share a common challenge: capitalising on this new knowledge in an optimal manner so that the discoveries and new ideas will translate into innovations with high social impact. --- ## ACTION 7.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-1 ### To strengthen the commitment to scientific research as a driving force for development and to set up the Catalan Council for Research and Innovation It is vital to consolidate and broaden in a sustained manner the commitment made over the past two decades to scientific research with a research support plan that includes a gradual, yet ambitious increase in the basal funding of universities and research institutions tied to programme contracts and conditional to the achievement of research milestones and the passing of assessments. This will allow for strategic planning of research geared to outcomes along similar lines to those of the leading countries in the EU. An independent, expert body is necessary to devise research and innovation proposals centred on the strategic sectors in which Catalonia can generate value over the coming decade and which ensures these proposals are closely aligned with European policies. In this context, it is advisable for a top-tier advisory body to be set up for reflection, debate and consultancy in the medium- and long-term to serve as an instrument for participation from the scientific community, industry and society in defining public research and innovation policies. The functions of this body may be inspired by the US government Office of Science and Technology Policy and said functions should be entrusted to one of the bodies envisaged in the draft Science Act of Catalonia. --- ## ACTION 7.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-2 ### To promote instruments for cooperation between companies, universities and public organisations for research It is important to foster, encourage and finance cooperation instruments and programmes between companies, universities and public research institutions more actively through tools already attested by means of best practices in benchmark regions and countries. It is necessary to redesign, optimise and increase the budget of existing programmes for funding joint research and innovation projects between public organisations and private companies. In a similar vein, it is vital to promote the European innovation hubs jointly funded by the European Commission, with antennas throughout Catalonia to encourage the uptake of leading-edge technology by SMEs across the region. --- ## ACTION 7.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-3 ### To foster the training, attraction and retention of talent Fostering the training and retention of local talent and the attraction of talent from all around in strategic enterprising and research spheres is an important goal; firstly, by increasing the allocation for the ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) programme, assigning it the resources needed to solve the entire talent reception process; and, secondly, by devising a similar programme, but one centring on the attraction of highly-trained profiles in key spheres for research, such as technology transfer, regulatory expertise, industrial property or certain highly specialist technologies. It is likewise advisable to expedite the administrative procedures associated with the arrival of international talent; for example, by introducing the technological visas that have already been implemented in neighbouring countries for training, research and knowledge transfer activities. --- ## ACTION 7.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-4 ### To adopt regulations for the management of research and its outcomes which incorporate incentives for effective management and for knowledge and technology transfer It is necessary to approve and implement the Science Act of Catalonia with the aim of increasing incentives for efficient management and for knowledge and technology transfer to the academic world by consolidating and expanding on existing transfer and management tranches, by lending financial support for the protection of research findings by means of patents, and by promoting cooperation with companies and the establishment of new technology-based companies. It is important to encourage the adoption of regulations for the management of research and research findings which are adapted to best international practices, strengthening the independence entrusted to research organisations at all levels. --- ## ACTION 7.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-5 ### To enhance tax incentive programmes to encourage the innovation ecosystem It is important to insist upon the design and implementation of programmes of tax measures to encourage the expansion of the innovative ecosystem and to foster investment, growth and talent attraction. The following proposals have been put forward: to encourage broader investment in emerging companies from individual and group investors, as well as from venture capital funds; to improve tax conditions on the stock options of entrepreneurs and workers of emerging companies; to devise an incentives system for corporate accelerators and incubators equivalent to the system for R&D&I activities; and, to envisage new mechanisms to monetise the deduction for investment in R&D. --- ## ACTION 7.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-6 ### To create an investment fund to finance disruptive technology-based projects and launch a range of ring-fenced grants to support technology maturity It is necessary to set up a majority public-owned capital investment fund to invest in business innovation projects based on disruptive, advanced and enabling technologies arising from the knowledge ecosystem of Catalonia, focussing particularly on biotechnology, IT, key enabling technologies and clean energy. The management of the fund would be carried out through an independent specialist management firm which would also offer support to the technology transfer offices of universities and research institutions with speeding up projects in order to make them investible through national and international venture capital funds. At present there is virtually no line of funding to cover this niche: technology maturity to bring it closer to the market, to make it more appealing to suit demand and, accordingly, to lend feasibility to the initial project financed using specific funds for research. This line, ring-fenced for universities and research institutions, would be earmarked to funding concept tests, prototyping and TRL (technology readiness level) uploads. The goal is to reduce the risk of the projects, to develop them to more advanced stages and to make them more appealing to suit demand. It will bring about increased funding for technology transfer offices – which are currently under resourced – with the general aim of recruiting and retaining specialist talent on the subject, as well as benefitting from the instruments needed to bring projects closer to the market. --- ## ACTION 7.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-7 ### To extend the pre-commercial public procurement model to encourage the marketing of innovative products produced by emerging Catalan companies It is vital to commit to the development of the science industry and to expand the pre-commercial public procurement model to encompass new innovative products and services generated by emerging companies. It is necessary to use the public procurement capacity of administrations to favour new solutions generated in Catalonia and to encourage their introduction on the market by transforming the administration into an innovation mobilisation mechanism. --- ## ACTION 7.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-8 ### To set up special funds for medical devices and technologies at the scale-up stage In order to foster the relationship between the supply of Catalan SMEs and the demand of hospitals – particularly in the fields of research, innovation and digital and technological solutions – hospitals must benefit from special funds to invest and meet their needs using products, technology and devices at the scale-up stage which have been made in Catalonia. At present, almost all the technology present in our hospitals comes from outside Catalonia, and there is a need to create joint streams of work between hospitals and Catalan companies to speed up the approval of new technologies and obtain a return for the public health system from approved technologies. If we take this crisis as an example, not all solutions developed here have found a swift channel in order to be approved and adopted by the health system. This disconnect may create an unfavourable cost/opportunity ratio for the health system and for industry alike. Our recommendation is to carry out the following: to provide support to and expand the capacities of public and private laboratories that are already approved and accredited; to identify the need for new accredited laboratories, promoting their establishment; to encourage individual laboratories or organisations to be certified as a notified body; and to extend the channels of innovative public purchasing as one of the primary pathways to procurement. --- ## ACTION 7.9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-7/action-7-9 ### To promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge and innovative attitudes among society It is vital to encourage, lend support to and reward innovative attitudes and habits within all institutions, organisations and companies, including conveying a passion for innovation and for creativity at universities and within the entire education system. For example, this may be done by promoting a programme that conveys enterprising skills in a practical fashion, in the style of the MIT Innovation Teams or the I-Corps of the National Science Foundation. It is necessary to promote initiatives that bring science closer to citizens of all ages in an experience-based manner, for instance by including dissemination and communication parameters in the programme contracts of institutions, by fostering forums for debate on science/art/culture, or by encouraging meeting points between research institutions and companies, particularly SMEs, as well as social organisations. --- ## GOAL 8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-8 ### To build a Catalonia founded on science and data We want Catalonia to be a nation where health, the economy, territorial planning, education and the rights and obligations of citizens, among other aspects, are founded on scientific knowledge and empirical evidence-based facts, a nation where we operate with systems of updated, segmented, open data broken down by regions to support decision-making. --- ## ACTION 8.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-8/action-8-1 ### To call for the development of empirical evidence-based policies Current legislation needs to make it mandatory for public decisions to be accompanied by an appendix of evidence on objective data to show that a thorough study has been carried out on the subject at hand. To do so whenever the complexity of the subject calls for it, the proposal has been made to set up specific multi-disciplinary groups that operate with transparency and stringency to put forward scientific evidence-based solutions following a preliminary open dialogue which must take into consideration the concerns of citizens, as does the US Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, for instance. --- ## ACTION 8.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-8/action-8-2 ### To expand repositories for research and public data analysis and publication, encouraging open science It is necessary to implement a federation of research and public data repositories to help share data generated through scientific studies at universities, research institutions or other organisations. The repositories will need to ensure that the data falls in line with the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) principles in relation to other repositories in Europe and worldwide. The seeds of this initiative have already been sown in Catalonia: the Dataverse repository promoted by the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia and Barcelona Supercomputing Center. However, it needs to be implemented, adopted and expanded in order to guarantee its accessibility and readability by all groups that wish to use it, thereby promoting open science. --- ## ACTION 8.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-8/action-8-3 ### To promote public/private cooperation in the sphere of data There are research projects that could benefit from data compiled by private companies and public administrations. Furthermore, there is also an interest within the private sector for access to public sector data to foster its research, development and innovation projects, while the public sector also has an interest in accessing data generated and compiled by companies so as to be able to plan specific public services more accurately. Accordingly, it is important to establish a legal and technical framework to allow for the sharing of public and private data, assuring suitable requirements are met in terms of privacy and security, while delivering the administrative agility and tools needed to operate within reasonable timeframes. --- ## ACTION 8.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-2/goal-8/action-8-4 ### To transform the Statistical Institute of Catalonia into the hub that centralises all Catalonia's information and to create the chief data officer post according to sectors and local areas The pandemic has underscored the importance of benefitting from standardised data broken down by regions for swifter, appropriate decision-making, and it has evidenced the current circumstances where data is highly dispersed and scarce in various spheres. In order to centralise and operate efficiently on all of the information currently existing in various ministries of the Government of Catalonia and other public institutions, the Statistical Institute of Catalonia must be granted the powers needed to become the hub that centralises all Catalonia's information. Moreover, to ensure vital information is available in all local areas and on all spheres, it is suggested to create the chief data officer post and to assign this profile specific regions and/or sectors in order to be able to manage the data on a more local level, to monitor this data's quality more effectively and to conduct analyses, studies and visual displays in accordance with specific needs. --- ## SPHERE 3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3 ### A reformed, agile and mobilising public sector The Catalan public administration has very accurately determined the various difficulties it faces, as well as the reforms it would need to implement. Nevertheless, the reforms proposed never end up being implemented and the quality of the administration and its operation are declining while its capacity to respond to unexpected difficulties is becoming increasingly limited. Meanwhile, there is a window of opportunity inasmuch as a large-scale generational change is taking place in the public sector (which will become ramped up in the coming years) and the way it is addressed is crucial as it may enable the introduction of structural changes and the renewal of the current model. Political leaders need to be able to articulate a strategy of transformation that coordinates affinities among citizens, social actors and professional groups from the public sector which have huge expectations for transformation. --- ## GOAL 9 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9 ### To benefit from a public sector that promotes and attracts talent It is important to re-conceive the systems for selection, training and assessment of the performance and professional careers of public employees and directors to enable the administration to become more receptive to the attraction, promotion and retention of talent in a sustained manner for the common good. The Catalan public sector faces a challenge affecting all dimensions of talent management and, in this respect, the coming years will be crucial. The generational succession that will take place and the requirement to incorporate technical profiles to meet new needs, for example, linked to digitalisation and the use of artificial intelligence, provide an ideal opportunity to introduce the improvements needed in the organisational model. --- ## ACTION 9.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9/action-9-1 ### To redefine the concept of job position and assignment to a specific unit, introducing the project-based work model that creates interdisciplinary teams and makes human talent available to the whole organisation Technology and consolidated best practices innovating in management of teams allow for more flexible and adaptable organisational structures, avoiding excessively vertical hierarchies and promoting greater drive towards horizontal coordination mechanisms. The trend towards the automation of routine tasks also drives us to this new arrangement of work according to projects or missions, in an organisation where people do not have a "job position" assigned to a specific unit; rather, the talent and abilities they provide are on offer to the organisation as a whole. The outcome must make it possible to adopt a different approach to complex problems; for example, by forming independent, multidisciplinary work teams that work for a specific period on a highly precise assignment. In this context, all Catalan public administrations must review the current organisational model and introduce pilot tests linked to specific areas or programmes which, once trialled, can be scaled up to the rest of the organisation, institutionalising this new means of working with the approval of the legal amendments to make it possible. --- ## ACTION 9.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9/action-9-2 ### To transform the Catalan School of Public Administration into a forum for analysis and foresight that certifies new staff promotion and selection systems An entity must be set up to certify best practices for selection and promotion of staff within the Catalan public administrations as a whole. At present, the Catalan School of Public Administration has a rather broad mission that encompasses general training, support for selection processes, and research and dissemination activities. In this context, it could organise its functions into two dimensions: becoming a think tank that generates and disseminates thought and frameworks of action on human resources in the public sector, and having the capacity to accredit staff selection and promotion processes and systems in the public sphere in Catalonia. The shortcomings in the current organisational model reveal the need for access to job vacancies to operate through a system which, while assuring legally stipulated principles, removes the memory-based entrance exam, ensures the attraction of talent that ties in with the actual needs that must be met and introduces a real-time staff performance assessment system, shifting from an *ex ante* model to an *ex post* model. In order to consolidate this role, the School of Public Administration will need to become a consortium-based entity which can act as an umbrella organisation for all Catalan public administrations. --- ## ACTION 9.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9/action-9-3 ### To foster the organisation of professional public management once and for all at Catalan public administrations, starting with directorate generals It is vital to organise a professional public management system by means of an up-to-date regulatory framework defining the rights and obligations of a figure that will make it possible to deliver stability within administrative structures and to separate political careers from professional careers through differing promotion mechanisms and incentives. The regulation of this new figure will make it possible to strengthen management ability within core structures, particularly in those where pertinent management abilities are required, establishing entrance systems that assure professionalism and thoroughness of delivery and assessment of performance. Along these lines, it has been proposed that directorate generals (or units of an equivalent hierarchical rank) and all management positions beneath them should be classified as public managers and should not be tied in with changes in the policy cycle. --- ## ACTION 9.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9/action-9-4 ### To regulate the job insecurity of interns, arranging a system that does not abuse this figure and suitably relocates all staff that are in this position over the next five years In the public sector, along with career civil servants, persons who have been recruited through non-permanent formulas coexist. This situation, which borders on the illegal but has become standardised over the past decade, leads to major distortions in all public organisations. Accordingly, it is highly important to introduce the improvements needed in the staff selection and promotion systems to set out alternative formulas to the temporary and reinforcement system, while addressing all situations that exist over the next five years by relocating all of these interns into a suitable category based on this new model and on tasks that it is pertinent for them to continue to perform. --- ## ACTION 9.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-9/action-9-5 ### To promote horizontal careers and mobility of public workers between various administrations and organisations in the public sector Knowledge of various situations and needs helps in the training of public workers with a global perspective and improves inter- and intra-administrative coordination in the medium-term. Accordingly, it is proposed to introduce a flexible staff management system to allow for mobility of public workers between various administrations and organisations in the public sector, enabling this to have a positive influence on their professional careers. Therefore, through flexible staff management systems it is important to examine and implement models which make it possible, for example, to carry out two jobs over the course of the week (for instance, 4 + 1 days or 3 + 2 days) in differing posts (i.e., technical office within the Ministry of Culture and communication within the Ministry of Education) and even in various administrations (i.e., 4 days at the Government of Catalonia + 1 day at a town council). Teleworking – whether in full or in part – should make it possible to put this system in place. --- ## GOAL 10 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10 ### To strive for an administration centred on creating public value and encouraging the participation of civil society Collaborative governance is here to stay and the role of the administration has moved from performing direct management of public services to management of networks of public and private actors who cooperate in order to reach complex goals that could not be achieved when working individually. This context calls for an update of leaderships and models for engagement with companies, citizens and organised civil society, focussing on creating public value and on redefining the organisational model based on this value. --- ## ACTION 10.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-1 ### To set up an observatory centred on generating public value and redefining public services, administrative processes and the HR management model based on this criterion The concept of public value must be used as a central tool to improve the management and assessment of the outcomes obtained, redefining the administration so that it focusses on outcomes. Just as there is a controller agency that oversees the suitability of the way in which the amounts permitted by law are spent, the suitability of the actions of the administration should be audited on the basis of this very criterion. In order to set up such a system, a cross-departmental observatory needs to be set up in all administrations to promote best practices and to monitor the implementation and outcomes of such practices. It is important for this observatory to formally contribute to defining all these activities linked to this sphere and to assume responsibility for the supervision thereof, reporting the outcomes achieved directly to the Parliament of Catalonia in an annual report which will disclose the public value that has been created by the various administrations (Government of Catalonia, county councils, town councils, etc.). This new system would serve as the instrument for reorganising all the actions for defining and improving public services and administrative processes. It would also make it possible to enhance the human resource management model, by channelling the added value derived from the creation of new positions, from the redefinition of existing ones or from the arrangement of everyday tasks. The role of any public employee structure and the way in which it is managed must be geared to generating public value in this manner. --- ## ACTION 10.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-2 ### To set up in-house offices for independent technical inspection and consultancy in each ministry of the Government of Catalonia Any party making a decision on a public policy must execute that policy, although there should also be a follow-up, supervision during execution and objective monitoring of outcomes using quantitative and qualitative indicators. This monitoring of outcomes cannot be carried out by the party that made the decision on which policy to implement or on how to execute it. For this technical monitoring to be conducted by the public administration itself would entail a qualitative leap that would bring us closer to the monitoring exerted in the most advanced European countries. In the same way that all ministries have staff in order to process all budgetary management linked to a policy with accounting reliability and legal assurances despite the fact that the Court of Accounts also reviews the financial statements independently, what is being proposed here is to establish a culture of policy monitoring, self-assessment of outcomes and accountability to society. As a result, the proposal is to set up an office within each ministry of the Government of Catalonia with highly qualified staff to carry out monitoring and assessment of outcomes, guaranteeing that a follow-up report will be issued each year on the various policies implemented. To ensure the independence of the reports and the necessary counselling that offices will require, an inter-ministerial body is advised to be set up to carry out external monitoring on the various offices. In conjunction with the ministerial offices, this inter-ministerial body shall draw up an annual public report which will be handed over to the Parliament. Once this procedure has been implemented within all ministries of the Government of Catalonia, formulas will need to be found in order to extend this methodology to the remaining areas of the Catalan public administration. --- ## ACTION 10.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-3 ### To shorten the timeframes of administrative procedures in the public sector by redesigning processes to make them more efficient and transparent A flagship international ranking, such as the World Bank's Doing Business, shows that in order to launch a business in Spain it takes 97 days, while in the UK it takes 18, in Norway 25, in Sweden 39 and in Denmark 45, all countries that are not notorious for a lack of oversight. Although certain administrative procedures are complex and call for a variety of reports and control mechanisms, a balance must be struck. For example, reviewing a local urban development plan may take four years or longer, a timeframe that is clearly unreasonable. Many of the processes employed stem from an unjustifiably bureaucratic mindset based on paperwork rather than data. They must be reconsidered and redesigned according to new needs, new technologies and transparency, ensuring the interest of citizens is at the core. The goal is to speed up the procedures for processing licenses, permits and applications within the Catalan public administration as a whole, without this entailing any additional expense, quite the contrary in fact; efficient use of existing resources will bring about benefits for the whole of society. This goal can be achieved if we start with an analysis and diagnosis with clear proposals for improvement which can be applicable in the very short-term. --- ## ACTION 10.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-4 ### To facilitate the managerial independence of public sector bodies The current model is centralised and rigid, based on mistrust and uniform criteria in differing sectors. There is a need to review and simplify the functioning of the instrumental administration (organisations, agencies, centres, etc.), providing it with greater independence for actual management, particularly when it comes to management of persons and expenditure. Along these lines, it is proposed that the procedure of the preliminary inspection should be withdrawn, reserving it solely for steps that are significant owing to the financial sum involved, such as harmonised contracts or major subsidy lines. The withdrawal of this formality would reduce the bureaucratic burden, speed up timeframes and strengthen the independence of management that can be exerted by public managers. At the same time, in line with the figure of the controller within the private sector, it has been proposed that the *ex-post* control be redefined by setting up an in-house monitoring body. This figure would report directly to the governing bodies and it would be incumbent on it to follow up on the risks of organisations. This task would go beyond a simple financial check and would also study the fulfilment of processes within the organisation and the achievement of the targets set. On a regular basis, this in-house monitoring body would submit a report on the identification of risks to the core controller agency. It has similarly been proposed that middle managers can decide at their own discretion what volume of human resources is required and which recruitment system is best suited to the specific sphere. --- ## ACTION 10.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-5 ### To redefine the notion of public/private cooperation, articulating the economic and legal instruments to make this possible and training professionals specialising in this sphere Through the approval of the most pertinent legal and economic instruments, it is necessary to design a map of options that would make it possible to suitably support cooperation between the public sector and the private sector (for profit or non-profit). We start from a twofold problem of ideologisation and confusion between subcontracting or outsourcing and the scheme for public/private cooperation. Public/private cooperation must be coordinated through a system of shared discretion where all parties have something to gain (i.e., a win-win scenario), where the benefits and risks are shared, and where the creation of public value and the target goal of service for citizens are guaranteed. In order to suitably manage these public/private partnerships it is important to benefit from suitable public and private managers, professionals who are familiar with the institutional framework and the laws applicable to both sectors and who have the ability to implement these partnerships. In this respect, it is proposed that investment be made in training specialists in this sphere and in the formation of cross-disciplinary work teams which will use an overall picture to lend support to all ministries, organisations and agencies of the Government of Catalonia that wish to foster these types of partnerships. The same model must be replicated on a local scale, putting together these teams to enable them to offer this inter- and intra-administrative support. --- ## ACTION 10.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-6 ### To promote citizen audits to assess user satisfaction with public services and guarantee transparency and usability of the data linked to these services The quality of public services must be assessed by its users. From the personal service received at all times to the resolution of the issue, including management and the duration of the process, all stages and components of the provision of public service must be assessed in quantitative and qualitative terms by citizens. The goal of this assessment must be to improve the service, but it should also become a significant factor in the process for the recruitment, promotion and remuneration of staff. It is a means of empowering citizens when they deal with the public administration and enhancing their satisfaction and trust, while enabling public officials to benefit from target indicators to apply improvement plans. However, transparency and the publication of data in open access have ended up being another bureaucratic process for projects which does not include a design to make open data user-friendly for third-party organisations. Citizen audits of this information should also be promoted, akin to the white hackers, just as Civio has been doing for instance. It is important for us to know whether the data published is of interest and is usable, so that we can keep improving the system on a continuing basis. --- ## ACTION 10.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-10/action-10-7 ### To set up a technical committee to oversee implementation of measures to reform the public sector Catalonia is characterised by devising many plans that are ultimately not put into effect. A multidisciplinary, non-political technical committee will need to be set up – reporting to the Ministry of the Presidency and formed by experts – in order to oversee implementation of measures and to provide accountability on a regular basis. The actions proposed, and others that will be developed, will need to be studied and then implemented on a step-by-step basis, with coordination being provided by this committee in order to secure the broadest levels of consensus possible. The committee will draw up a roadmap and may set out specific measures, for the short-, medium- or long-term, focussing particularly on the budgetary implications of the proposals and their sustainability. --- ## GOAL 11 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11 ### To support the economic organisation and coordination of the entire nation by promoting a sustainable, locally-focussed model It is necessary to rebalance Catalonia by supporting its economic organisation and coordination and by promoting a sustainable, locally-focussed model based on sustainable mobility, reviewing the models of governance to foster agendas that are shared between the countryside and the urban world and based on sustainable, balanced, considerate development. --- ## ACTION 11.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-1 ### To update the local funding model to solve the largest deficits and incorporate goals that foster desired behaviours Local funding has not been subject to a thorough review since the transition to democracy. Although it is primarily incumbent on the Spanish government, the Government of Catalonia does benefit from adequate scope to act with its own legislation in order to solve the largest deficits in Catalan towns. Town councils are the public administration with closest ties to the territory, and it is their responsibility to meet the needs of people by applying tax respites, encouraging recruitment, promoting policies to support local commerce and adopting economic restructuring measures, always in keeping with the European mandate and the priorities of the Catalan government. The current local funding system has revealed itself to be barely equitable and has triggered obvious inequalities, such as smaller towns and tourist spots being under-resourced. Always observing the principals of local autonomy, the Government of Catalonia must review the tools with which it contributes every year to local funding, immediately applying all available remedial factors to balance the financing, including its own transfers, the Unique Plan for Works and Services of Catalonia or the creation of new transfers and subsidies linked to the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The tax system should not only strive to raise funds, local funding must seek to foster desired behaviours, such as a tax on vehicles (IVTM) favouring less polluting vehicles, a tax on waste that favours families and companies who recycle more, and so on. The transfers made by the Government of Catalonia to town councils must be tied to the achievement of targets of local and general interest, going further than the current budgetary distribution criteria (based on population, management expenditure and county income disparities). --- ## ACTION 11.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-2 ### To benefit from a smart digitalisation system of data broken down by regions to monitor the various needs of the people in real time and in a networked manner The areas of industry, tourism, health or climate are just a number of examples of how vital it is to benefit from detailed, real-time knowledge of every region in Catalonia in order to make decisions, striving to coordinate key decisions that entail investments and involve public services. Smart digitalisation and real-time management of data broken down by regions in a cross-departmental manner across all public administrations must serve as the fundamental tool to anticipate needs and be able to react in a positive manner straight away. --- ## ACTION 11.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-3 ### To set up a body to act as the mediator for the design and implementation of conflicting regional plans that make it difficult to achieve the goals Plans concerning urban development, environment, agriculture, fisheries, housing and education must be drawn up based on full coordination and administrative cooperation for the benefit of citizens and in order to achieve the nation's goals. However, when one plan clashes with another, it would be suitable to submit the case to the arbitration of an independent body that assesses the plans overall, monitors them and is responsible for accountability to society, issuing an annual report which shall be submitted to the Parliament. The professionals on this body must be highly qualified given that the assessment of regional plans entails a highly complex function owing to the use of a variety of quantitative and qualitative indicators. --- ## ACTION 11.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-4 ### To strengthen local action groups to lend Catalan fishing and the countryside an effective boost everywhere in Catalonia Local action groups, driven by European guidelines, have been a positive initiative everywhere in Catalonia. They manage public grants independently and in a responsible manner and bring together all the economic and social agents linked to the sector in the form of an association. This self-management of the countryside and fisheries with public grants is highly welcomed in every region. However, the diversity of Catalan fisheries and countryside constitutes a potential for wealth and a management challenge at the same time. It is important to strengthen these local action groups by devising strategic lines in multi-year plans to set specific goals that are suitable for each region, based on a system of local governance and designated grant programmes in keeping with the characteristics of each area. These action groups must commit to issuing a report and be responsible for accountability to the Parliament of Catalonia every year when it comes to the achievement of goals. --- ## ACTION 11.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-5 ### To develop a special plan for microtowns to address structural problems linked to basic healthcare, education and connectivity, and make it possible for them to be at the forefront of environmental and energy sustainability In Catalonia there are 947 towns and villages, 134 of which have fewer than 200 inhabitants and evidence reveals that depopulation is a common theme in many corners of Catalonia. This is a serious problem inasmuch as smaller hamlets provide Catalonia with vital balance, they are part of our rural tradition and our past, and they are home to natural, cultural and historic heritage that must be preserved. Many of these small towns and villages are scantly financed and their basic public services are too far away. It is vital to prioritise a special plan for microtowns, with the necessary administrative and technical support and joint funding, to help address specific needs. Mayors of smaller settlements, along with supra-municipal administrations, must collectively help to develop a special plan for each microtown in Catalonia. Aside from addressing structural problems relating to basic healthcare, education and connectivity, among other aspects, this plan must enable microtowns to be at the forefront of environmental and energy sustainability. --- ## ACTION 11.6 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-6 ### To set out a Catalan forestry pact that promotes a green economy that fuses forestry protection and usage, delivering job stability to rural populations Catalonia is brimming with forests and biodiversity and it is important to strike a balance between a twofold aim: usage and protection of forests. To date, forestry policies have been based more on protection rather than use, and the present-day challenge involves striking a balance between the two. It is necessary to strengthen the environmental role of forests, preserving their biodiversity, while at the same time fostering the establishment of local forest biomass, wood production, forestry and other industries. This forestry policy tied to each region must contribute to the development of the green economy in Catalonia and deliver job stability to rural populations. Experts, public leaders and agents from the region must contribute to the drafting of this pact, and actions must be compared with best practices from other countries. --- ## ACTION 11.7 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-7 ### To set out a Catalan blue pact based on public/private cooperation for the preservation and sustainable usage of the Catalan coastline Climate change endangers the Catalan coastline and the survival of the maritime economy. In order to strengthen the maritime R&D network formed by the Government of Catalonia it is important to promote a pact that incorporates public and private agents, including local fisheries action groups, which prioritises key joint actions for the preservation and sustainable usage of the Catalan coastline. It is also necessary for local authorities to take part in order to make progress with the joint preparation of actions to preserve nature and the sea, taking as an excellent example the currently emerging Master Plan for the Use and Management of the Marine Area in Cap de Creus Nature Park, which should help to strike a balance between the preservation of a significant nature area in Catalonia and the economic activity linked to it. --- ## ACTION 11.8 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-11/action-11-8 ### To transform Barcelona and its metropolitan area environmentally to encourage a model of inter-connected neighbouring towns and cities With all of its modernism and historic legacy, Barcelona inspires and appeals to individuals and businesses and it has become one of the world's major cities. Covid has led to the reconsideration of Barcelona as a city to live, as one with a local focus, where services can be reached on foot or by bike. In this context, it is necessary to strengthen the reduction of pollution and the ecological transformation of the city needs to flourish. It is important to promote the development of local services in each neighbourhood and city block, working in particular to support the most underprivileged, while improving the coordination of inter-urban actions. It is also pertinent to assure excellent accessibility to the city centre, particularly with public transport, to draw in visitors and continue to be a city that appeals to the world. Reducing citizens' stress and the impact of climate change calls for a firm, joint plan and committed institutions that operate on the basis of a long-term approach. A working forum should be set up to define the actions to be implemented over the coming years. This body should encourage consensus between towns and must benefit from the endorsement of international experts who have contributed to the design of benchmark European cities. --- ## GOAL 12 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12 ### To raise Catalonia into the Cloud We must strive for comprehensive digitalisation of the public sector by thoroughly transforming working processes and the service delivered to citizens and companies through the development of our own, decentralised technological infrastructure to store data. In this context, it is important to guarantee the digital rights and obligations of individuals while fostering an educational, labour and social model that allows access to digital citizenship in equal conditions. --- ## ACTION 12.1 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12/action-12-1 ### To set out the "once-only" principle for all administrative procedures while empowering citizens as the sole holders of information "Once only" is the principle according to which any information should be requested from citizens one time only, whereby they are the sole holders of their data, regardless of which administration needs the information or for what process it is provided. The development of administration organised according to impervious, self-contained spheres has meant that over the years various uncoordinated parallel procedures have been created which require citizens to provide the same information, detail or document several times. The administration has scarcely endeavoured to strengthen the inter-operability of its procedures to save citizens from having to provide data they have already handed over. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to begin re-devising procedures as we began to detail in action 9.6, while digitalising them and establishing their inter-operability, starting from a fundamental basis: each citizen is the sole holder of their information, which they assign to the administration according to a mutual commitment to correct usage and the delivery of a public service. --- ## ACTION 12.2 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12/action-12-2 ### To build a cross-departmental personal data architecture that enables citizens to exercise their digital rights and obligations In order to allow for actual inter-operability, citizens need to be able to easily and simply decide who they assign their data to and give authorisation for access. From the standpoint of rights, technological development towards a distributed logic does not call for centralisation of data. To enable this, it is vital to put together a personal data architecture that is cross-departmental (health, education, social, etc.) where each citizen benefits from a personal repository in which to integrate, add, store (in encrypted form) and use their data regardless of who has generated or holds this data. --- ## ACTION 12.3 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12/action-12-3 ### To assure top-tier connectivity throughout Catalonia by means of secure, publicly-owned infrastructure The smooth implementation of the comprehensive digitalisation of the public sector unavoidably entails benefitting from publicly-owned infrastructure enabling connectivity throughout Catalonia. This widespread connectivity calls for an ambitious plan to provide the public sector with suitable computational and data infrastructure to meet the challenge it faces, along with a communication network throughout Catalonia to allow for optimal connectivity. It is also necessary to be able to guarantee the cyber-security of this infrastructure, which would support the public cloud in which all government processes need to operate (particularly when it comes to strategic spheres such as security or health). In a few years, it will be possible to guarantee fibre connectivity throughout Catalonia and, thereafter, to capitalise on the features afforded by 5G, incorporating marine connectivity (which is vital for low latency services) and satellite connectivity. --- ## ACTION 12.4 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12/action-12-4 ### To approve the Act on the Digital Public Sector of Catalonia Current legislation does not allow the administration to develop the full potential of digitalisation for the simple reason that many of the current features did not exist when the relevant regulations were drafted several decades ago, for instance, digital identity or information systems in real time. In this context, it is necessary to draw up and pass an act that covers the digitalisation of all public administrations of Catalonia. --- ## ACTION 12.5 https://2022.cat/en/sphere-3/goal-12/action-12-5 ### To endeavour for zero digital poverty by also assuring the whole population is literate in digital technologies During the pandemic, it has become patent that access to the Internet has been a highly relevant distinction between children and young people in a position of social inclusion or social exclusion. In this day and age, digital training is one of the decisive elements to guaranteeing social advancement, particularly among children and young people. It is necessary to devise a public policy enabling families in a situation of social exclusion to have access to the Internet and to guarantee they are fully literate in digital technologies. This is the only way to remove the pockets of digital poverty existing between various groups. A plan is needed with the aim of achieving zero digital poverty, including universal access to the Internet free-of-charge, the minimum level of training to make the most of the full strengths of the digital world and access to technological devices.