A fiscal path to sovereignty? the basque economic agreement and nationalist politics

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

Volumn 21, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 63-82

  Gray, Caroline ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTONOMY; BILATERAL AGREEMENT; DECENTRALIZATION; GOVERNMENT; POLITICAL CONFLICT; SOVEREIGNTY;

BASQUE COUNTRY [SPAIN]; SPAIN;

CALLITHRIX;

EID: 84954211411     PISSN: 13537113     EISSN: 15572986     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13537113.2015.1003489     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. See C. M. Gray, “Smoke and Mirrors: How Regional Finances Complicate Spanish-Catalan Relations,” International Journal of Iberian Studies 27(1): 21–42 (2014).
2. The PNV has won every Basque regional government election with a minority since the first in 1980, only once being forced into opposition in 2009–12 due to coalition politics.
3. “El PNV pide extender el sistema bilateral del concierto a todo el autogobierno vasco,” Deia, 10 July 2014. http://www.deia.com/2014/07/10/politica/euskadi/el-pnv-pide-extender-el-sistemabilateral-del-concierto-a-todo-el-autogobierno-vasco (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
4. Observation based on information garnered in an extensive interview program in the Basque Country in 2014. See “Acknowledgements.”
5. For further explanation of the Concierto in English, see Ignacio Zubiri, The Economic Agreement between the Basque Country and Spain (Bilbao: Asociaciόn para la Promociόn y Difusiόn del Concierto Econόmico “Ad Concordiam,” 2010), http://www.conciertoeconomico.org/phocadownload/libros/economic_agreement.pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014) and “An Assessment of the Economic Agreement: Myths and Realities,” in Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and Eduardo Alonso Olea, eds., The Basque Fiscal System: History, Current Status, and Future Perspectives (Reno: Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, 2014), 125–72.
6. On the historical origins of the Concierto, see Eduardo Alonso Olea, El Concierto Econόmico (1878–1937): Orígenes y formaciόn de un Derecho Histόrico (Oñati: Instituto Vasco de Administraciόn Pública, 1995).
7. Delegating tax-raising power is used here as an approximate translation of “concertar el impuesto,” the official Spanish terminology in this context.
8. Impressions of the Basque PP perspective are informed by personal interviews with Antόn Damborenea, head of the Basque PP in Bizkaia, 9 July 2014, and Aitor Uribesalgo, PP treasury minister of the provincial government of Araba/ Álava, 10 Oct. 2014.
9. Mikel Buesa, Economics professor at the Complutense University of Madrid and founding member of UPyD in 2007–2009, coined the term “el pufo vasco” (“the Basque swindle”) in a study by the same name that he published in 2007 criticizing the methodology used to calculate the Basque contribution to the Spanish state via the quota.
10. Zubiri, The Economic Agreement, 112; Ángel de la Fuente, “Sobre el Pacto Fiscal y el Sistema de Concierto,” March: 4–5 (2012), https://www.fundacionsepi.es/ciea/Pacto%20Fiscal%20(Angel%20de%20la%20Fuente).pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
11. Gray, “Smoke and Mirrors,” 23.
12. See, for example, the interview with lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu in El País, 2 Oct. 2014. http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/10/02/actualidad/1412266786_167452.html (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
13. Personal interviews with Pedro Azpiazu, PNV parliamentary spokesperson for the Economy, 15 Sept. 2014, and with technical experts in the Bizkaian treasury department, 4 April and 8 Oct. 2014.
14. On this theory, see Jonathan Rodden, Hamilton’s Paradox: The Promise and Peril of Fiscal Federalism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
15. Personal interviews with present and former Basque politicians involved in negotiations with their Catalan counterparts at the time: Eduardo J. Alonso-Olea, “La autonomía y su financiaciόn. Debates parliamentarios, 1977–2012,” in Diana Repeto García, coord., Las Cortes de Cádiz y la Historia Parliamentaria (Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz, 2012), 877–79.
16. Gray, “Smoke and Mirrors,” 36–37.
17. Ángel de la Fuente, “Está bien calculado el cupo?,” Moneda y Crédito 231: 93–150. Preliminary draft online: http://pareto.uab.es/wp/2010/80310.pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
18. On the questions raised during the 1990s about the Concierto’s fit within the EU context, see Ignacio Zubiri, El sistema de Concierto Econόmico en el Contexto de la Uniόn Europea (Bilbao: Círculo de Empresarios Vascos, 2000).
19. Gonzalo Martínez Etxeberria, “La Ley Orgánica 1/2010, de 19 de febrero, sobre el mal llamado ‘blindaje’ del Concierto Econόmico vasco,” Gaceta tributaria del País Vasco (Zergak) 47: 209–218 (2014), http://www.conciertoeconomico.org/joomdocs/autores/ZERGAK-2014_MARTINEZG_La-LO-1-2010_sobre-el-mal-llamado-blindaje.pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
20. See also the interview with Ignacio Zubiri in Forum Fiscal: la revista tributaria de Álava, Bizkaia y Gipuzkoa 199: 89 (2014).
21. See Gemma Martínez Bárbara, Armonizaciόn Fiscal y Poder Tributario Foral en la Comunidad Autόnoma del País Vasco (Bilbao: Instituto Vasco de Administraciόn Pública, 2014), 93–108.
22. Personal interview with former lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe, 28 Oct. 2014.
23. Personal interview with Pedro Larrea, former Basque government deputy treasury minister in the mid-1980s, 20 June 2014.
24. See Bonnie Field, this collection.
25. Impressions based on personal interviews with former lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza (PNV), 28 April 2014
26. Gonzalo Múgica (PSE), legal adviser to former deputy lehendakari Ramόn Jáuregui, 18 July 2014
27. Carlos Aguirre (PSE), then Economic Planning Director of the Basque government, 13 Oct. 2014. On the technical specifics of the dispute
28. José Luis Larrea Jiménez de Vicuña, “Las leyes quinquenales de cupo: un acuerdo para el futuro,” Revista Vasca de Administraciόn Pública 23: (1989), http://www.conciertoeconomico.org/joomdocs/RVAP_1989_LARREA_J_Las_leyes_quinquenales_de_cupo.pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).
29. Aside from increasing Basque fiscal powers, delegation of the authority to collect the special taxes would stop the quota from becoming negative. Over the years, the transfer of resource-intensive competences to the Basque region combined with strong revenue collection by the Spanish state (especially the special taxes) had resulted in a rapid reduction in the size of the quota.
30. For the agreement reached, see Informe Anual Integrado de la Hacienda Vasca 2011, http://www.ogasun.ejgv.euskadi.net/contenidos/informe_estudio/iai/es_iai_2011/adjuntos/2011%20IAI.pdf (accessed 14 Nov. 2014), 204–205.
31. Personal interviews with Basque politicians and technical experts that have been involved in negotiations with their Spanish counterparts.
32. For example, El País, 20 March 1996, http://elpais.com/diario/1996/03/20/espana/827276418_850215.html (accessed 14 Nov. 2014)
33. El País, 20 April 1996, http://elpais.com/diario/1996/04/20/espana/829951219_850215.html (accessed 14 Nov. 2014).