The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has proposed that the Generalitat take on the execution of maintenance and expansion works of the AP-7, one of the most pressured infrastructures in Catalonia due to its traffic volume and recurring congestion problems.
The proposal involves agreeing with the central Government on a new management assignment. With that formula, the State would maintain ownership of the infrastructure and finance the actions, while the Generalitat would be responsible for managing, awarding, and executing them.
Junqueras argues that the measure could be concretized “immediately” in a bilateral meeting between the Generalitat and the Spanish Executive after the summer holidays.
A commercial company to execute investments
The republican leader demands to formalize in September a new Commercial Investment Company of Catalonia, already planned in the agreement between ERC and the Govern of Salvador Illa within the framework of the latest Catalan budgets.
The objective of this new instrument would be to conduct studies, draft projects, and ensure the execution of State investments in Catalonia.
For ERC, the company must serve to prevent budgeted investments from being trapped in administrative delays or low execution levels. The underlying idea is clear: if the State does not execute what it has committed to, Catalonia must have its own tools to do so.
The State's investment returns to the center of the debate
The proposal comes after the latest data from the General Intervention of the State, dependent on the Ministry of Finance, placed the 8.6% of regionalizable investment executed by the State in Catalonia in 2025.
Junqueras has used that figure to reinforce his political diagnosis: “The State must respond to its ineffectiveness with more sovereignty for Catalonia, with more tools, with more competencies, and with more resources.”
ERC thus places budget execution back at the center of its agenda. It is not just about demanding more money, but about requiring management capacity over the works that directly affect the Catalan territory.
The AP-7, a highway under pressure
The AP-7 has become an especially sensitive infrastructure since the end of tolls.
The liberalization of the highway multiplied its use and transferred more heavy and private traffic to a corridor that was already essential for the mobility of the Mediterranean coast. Since then, the delays, accidents, and saturation in certain sections have fueled political pressure on the State.
Junqueras proposes that the new mandate have a double objective: to ensure the good maintenance of the road and to expand its capacity where necessary.
For ERC, the AP-7 cannot continue to depend solely on the rhythms of the Ministry of Transport if Catalonia has the technical and administrative capacity to accelerate the actions.
Pyrénées Axis and N-II: the other priorities
The AP-7 is not the only infrastructure that ERC wants to incorporate into this strategy. Junqueras has also requested to strengthen the existing management mandates in the Pyrénées Axis, the N-260, and in the N-II in the Maresme region.
In the case of the Pyrénées Axis, a mandate financed with 260 million euros has already been formalized. The leader of ERC proposes to add another 300 million to expand the scope of the actions.
In the N-II, the republicans also want to increase the current amount, which is 384 million euros, although Junqueras has not specified an additional figure.
What is a management mandate
The management mandate allows one administration to execute an action whose ownership corresponds to another.
In this case, the State would continue to be the owner of the roads and would assume the financing. The Generalitat, on the other hand, would manage the projects and the awarding of the works.
The formula offers ERC a middle ground between two objectives: not waiting for the State to directly execute the investments and, at the same time, not giving up on having the central Government provide the financial resources.
For Junqueras, this path would allow for greater efficiency without opening a longer jurisdictional battle.
ERC does not give up on the Investment Consortium
The Mercantile Society of Investments does not completely replace ERC's old aspiration to create a Consortium of Investments.
The republicans argue that this consortium would be the best tool to guarantee the execution of state investments in Catalonia. But its creation would require the endorsement of the Congress, and Junqueras reminds that Junts blocked it by voting against.
Now ERC wants to bring the proposal back to the Lower House. Junqueras hopes that Junts will be “a little more responsible” this time and allow progress on an instrument that, according to the republicans, would serve to defend the material interests of Catalonia.
Pressure also on Junts and the PSC
The proposal has a double political direction. On one hand, ERC pressures the PSOE and the Government of Salvador Illa to fulfill the commitments made and accept transferring more management capacity to Catalonia.
On the other hand, Junqueras tries to place Junts in front of a contradiction: blocking Catalan investment tools while demanding more sovereignty from the State.
The message from ERC is that the sovereignty dispute must translate into useful competencies, concrete resources, and executed works, not just political statements.
An advisory council with economic and social agents
Junqueras has also requested to establish a kind of advisory council with social and economic agents from Catalonia. The idea, included in the budget pact, is to listen to and involve unions, business associations, chambers of commerce, universities, and other actors in the country in improving the execution of investments.
ERC believes that if those sectors push in the same direction, it will be more difficult for the PSC to “drag its feet” and for Junts to “vote against Catalonia.” The strategy seeks to broaden the pressure beyond the parties and turn the execution of infrastructures into a transversal demand.
Financing and the IRPF, the other front
Junqueras' interview also addressed the new financing model for Catalonia.
ERC wants to introduce in the processing in Congress the possibility for the central Executive to delegate to the Generalitat the competencies of management and collection of the IRPF.
The issue is part of Salvador Illa's investiture pact and has been one of the major points of friction between ERC and the PSC. The lack of progress on this matter led the republicans to reject the negotiation of the first budget project of the Government.
Junqueras admits that it will be “difficult” for the PSOE to accept that delegation because, as he has said, the socialists always “drag their feet” when Catalonia demands new tools, competencies, or resources.
ERC claims the agreements extracted from the PSOE
Despite the difficulty, Junqueras defends that pressure ultimately yields results.
He has recalled that it also “cost the PSOE a lot” to agree on the partial cancellation of the debt of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund and the new financing, but that there was finally an agreement.
“It costs them a lot, yes, but from time to time we reach very important agreements for our country,” he summarized.
That is the framework in which ERC wants to move the infrastructure folder now: political pressure, bilateral negotiation, and the creation of its own instruments to execute what the State does not execute.
Infrastructure as practical sovereignty
Junqueras' proposal fits into a political line that ERC is trying to strengthen: presenting sovereignty not only as an institutional issue but as the ability to solve concrete problems.
Collapsed roads, pending works, low budget execution, delayed investments, and insufficient financing are part of the same diagnosis.
For Junqueras, the response must be more decision-making power for Catalonia. In the AP-7, that means that the Generalitat can execute maintenance and expansion works. In the N-II and the N-260, that the commissions grow. In financing, that Catalonia manages more taxes.
ERC wants September to mark the beginning of that new phase. The first test will be to see if the central Government accepts that the Generalitat not only claims investments but also executes them.