The OECD will evaluate the Generalitat's public regulations to reduce bureaucracy.

Salvador Illa's government will approve a collaboration agreement with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) next Tuesday in the Executive Council. The aim of the international organization is to evaluate Catalonia's public regulations and provide input that will allow the Generalitat to improve them in terms of simplification, efficiency, and regulatory quality, thus facilitating the reduction of bureaucracy.

The collaboration agreement, which will last 18 months, is the first of its kind signed by a region with the OECD, as the international organization has focused its work in this area with states, through recommendations and tools such as regulatory impact assessments and digitalization. However, the synergies between Illa's government and the OECD are not new, as it signed a collaboration agreement last year to improve the academic performance of public schools in Catalonia.

According to La Vanguardia, the Catalan government will commission the OECD to evaluate the existing laws in Catalonia to make them clearer and more effective. This goal is part of the public administration reform that the Catalan government set for itself at the beginning of its term and is spearheaded by the Ministry of the Presidency, headed by Albert Dalmau. Next Tuesday, the Executive Council will approve the agreement to activate this collaboration, and working sessions will begin this September.

The OECD will design a series of improvements and provide technical support to train the staff responsible for implementing them.

The collaboration agreement with the OECD will be implemented in three phases. In the first, the international body will conduct an analysis of the Generalitat de Catalunya's set of regulations, and after the diagnosis, the evaluation phase will begin. Finally, the OECD will design a series of improvements it deems appropriate and provide technical support to train the staff responsible for implementing them.

Reducing bureaucracy and modernizing the administration is one of the key issues for the Catalan government, which was also discussed at the third meeting of the Catalan government held in Arnes (Terra Alta). Illa hopes to prepare for the new political year, which will include, among other challenges, the approval of the first budget of the Catalan government under the Socialist government. This meeting specifically addressed how to move forward in streamlining and simplifying procedures. This task has already seen some steps taken to transform more than 170 procedures and services. These include some of the most in-demand services, such as the processing of international student mobility grants, social benefits such as the guaranteed citizen income, the non-contributory disability or retirement pension, the recognition of dependency status, the recognition of disability status, the single-parent and large family status, the recognition and validation of non-university foreign studies, and applications for subsidies from the electric vehicle company.

Illa points out the objective of "improving public services" for the new political year.

At the end of the Government's working meeting in Arnes, Illa stated that the objectives set for the new political year can be summed up as "improving public services."

During the inauguration ceremony for the new surgical unit at the Móra d'Ebre Regional Hospital, which he attended at the end of the workday accompanied by the Regional Minister of Health, Olga Pané, the president cited as an example of this improvement the €5.2 million investment made to update this regional hospital, which serves three regions (Ribera d'Ebre, Terra Alta, and Priorat). However, to maintain this trend, the government will need to explore an agreement with its investiture allies (ERC and Comuns) to approve the new budgets or, failing that, the necessary credit supplements to increase available resources as a result of the improvement in public revenues.

The Government has not yet initiated contacts with its partners to explore a budgetary agreement. For now, they are engaged in "internal work" to develop a budget framework, and in the coming days or weeks, they will approve the 2026 spending ceiling, which is the starting point for beginning the drafting of a budget and the necessary political negotiations.