Por Redaccion The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, has not accepted the proposal of 13 autonomous communities on the topics to be discussed, which are of great importance to the citizens of Spain and Castilla y León.
May 28, 2025
Castilla y León | Presidency Department
The Minister of the Presidency, Luis Miguel González Gago, has attended today the Preparatory Committee meeting held at the Ministry of Territorial Policy headquarters. The purpose of this meeting was to prepare a definitive and consensus Agenda between the Government of Spain and the autonomous communities for the upcoming Conference of Presidents, scheduled for June 6 in Barcelona.
The Regulations governing the Conference of Presidents establishes, in Article 5.2.c), that any point proposed by the majority of autonomous communities must automatically be included in the Agenda. However, in today’s meeting, the minister has decided to disregard this Regulation and has not included the joint and majority proposal of 13 out of the 19 autonomous communities and cities.
Specifically, the points proposed by the Castilla y León Regional Government were as follows:
- The debate on a new model of regional financing and rejection of the mutualization of the debt of the autonomous communities announced by the Minister of Finance.
- The response to the successive crises of strategic infrastructures of state competence: railways, transportation, and telecommunications.
- The insecurity generated around the current energy model after the blackout crisis.
- The reaffirmation of control over national borders and immigration as exclusive competencies of the Government of Spain.
- And the search for solutions by the Ministry of Health for the shortage of doctors and nurses, especially in certain specialties.
In addition to these five topics, the Government of Spain proposed, in advance and in writing, the inclusion of two points on the Agenda: education and housing. The Castilla y León Regional Government, like the rest of the regional governments, accepted these proposals and expanded them as follows:
- The involvement of the Government of Spain in the financing of free education from 0 to 3 years, currently 100% financed by the Castilla y León Regional Government.
- And the approval of measures to combat the illegal occupation of housing.
In today’s meeting, considering the requests made by the autonomous communities, the State responded with another new proposal that was also insufficient, as it excluded the analysis of critical railway infrastructures (closure of a dozen train stops: 6 in Segovia, 2 in Medina del Campo, and 2 in Puebla de Sanabria), transportation (closure of almost 400 bus stops on regular lines), and telecommunications (around 20% of the territory of the Region with no or deficient Internet coverage), all crucial for Castilla y León. It also excluded the discussion to advance in a new model of regional financing, the shortage of healthcare professionals, and border control and immigration.
As a result, and following the corresponding vote and majority opposition of the autonomous communities, there is currently no Agenda for the Conference of Presidents scheduled for June 6 in Barcelona due to the refusal of the Government of Spain to listen to the majority voice of the regions and comply with the rule governing this body, the highest level for dialogue and cooperation between the Central Government and the autonomous communities.
The Minister of the Presidency, Luis Miguel González Gago, has demanded that the Government of Spain reconsider its refusal in the coming days: «The President of the Government has a legal and ethical obligation to listen to what the regional presidents have to say, as they mostly want to find solutions to the main problems affecting citizens, issues common to the entire Spanish territory and that, in the case of Castilla y León, affect its population in a special way.»