Oriol Junqueras, president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), has proposed establishing permanent teams of respected experts in Catalonia’s Department of Education and other strategic sectors. In an interview with Europa Press, he argued that broad, cross-party agreements could give Catalonia greater stability and predictability in areas including education, infrastructure, energy and housing, insulating impressive public services from frequent changes of government.
Junqueras says the current system, in which new administrations may replace basic personnel and shift priorities, undermines long-term planning. He proposes that parties jointly select expert teams, agree on their priorities and commit to supporting them for periods of eight to twelve years, regardless of which party is in power. His proposal would also require a binding commitment to allocate a fixed share of the budget to these sectors. If annual budgets cannot be approved, he has proposed using credit-extension decrees to maintain funding continuity.
In education, the proposal comes as the Consell d’Educació de Catalunya (CEC) develops a separate, broad-based process intended to support a future stability pact. CEC president Joan Manuel del Pozo has said the aim is to strengthen stability and improve learning outcomes, with a policy objective of raising education investment to 6% of Catalonia’s GDP. The process is not an enacted pact or a binding multi-year budget commitment; it is designed to gather proposals from the education community before conclusions are presented for political consideration.
The CEC’s timetable has three stages: a listening phase before Christmas, deliberation from January to March, and final conclusions expected in April 2027. Teachers, families, pupils, school leadership teams and municipalities are among those the process seeks to involve. The discussion is organized around five themes: inclusion and the prevention of segregation, teacher professionalism, family co-responsibility, governance, and greater municipal participation and decentralization. Del Pozo has said the conclusions should provide a basis for an education stability pact.
Esther Niubó, Catalonia’s education councillor, and Del Pozo presented the themes to representatives of PSC, ERC, Junts, Comuns, CUP and Aliança Catalana. The reported meeting did not include the PP, while Vox is not participating in the working process. Political parties are expected to remain outside the initial listening and deliberation phases, with the proposals returning to the political arena afterward. The CEC process is distinct from Junqueras’s proposal for permanent expert teams and long-term commitments.
Junqueras says agreements should extend beyond political actors to include social and economic stakeholders and experts, fostering trust and a longer-term approach to policymaking. He has criticized a political culture dominated by reproach and short-termism, and pointed to polarization in the United States as an obstacle to constructive policymaking. In October 2026, he described the PP and Vox as the principal threat to Catalan institutions, education and self-government, while presenting ERC as a counterweight to policies promoted by the Spanish right.
Beyond education, Junqueras envisions similar long-term agreements in infrastructure, renewable energy and housing. For infrastructure, he highlights maintenance of the existing rail network and expansion of conventional train lines. He has also raised forest management and income policies, including wage increases to boost families’ purchasing power. On housing, he proposes allowing families to pay the 10% Property Transfer Tax (ITP) in installments, easing the upfront cost of a home purchase.
The proposals come amid a live dispute over Catalonia’s budget. ERC and the government of Salvador Illa remain divided over the budget process, and ERC has said it will not support a unilateral proposal. That disagreement shows the political challenge of sustaining long-term commitments through annual budget decisions; Junqueras’s suggested credit-extension mechanism is a proposal, not a funding arrangement established by the CEC’s education process.
The debate over continuity also unfolds amid wider concerns about political instability in Spain. RUSSPAIN has covered tensions in Moncloa following court decisions involving relatives of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, including the government’s response to those challenges (recent coverage of government turmoil).
Junqueras’s proposal reflects his argument that lasting progress in education, infrastructure and social policy requires mechanisms that can outlast electoral cycles. The CEC’s separate education debate is scheduled to produce conclusions in April 2027; Junqueras’s proposed expert teams and eight-to-twelve-year commitments have no stated implementation timetable.
