Overview
- Foment del Treball, which published its study Monday, says Catalonia has an accumulated deficit of €49,543 million in public works tenders since 2009, or €58,748 million in 2025 euros.
- The report measures licitación, meaning the value of projects put out to bid, and benchmarks needs at 2.2% of GDP, with tendering plunging after 2009 and still short in 2025 at €3,990 million versus a €7,365 million goal.
- Execution data point to weak delivery, with the Central Administration carrying out 59.5% of planned investment in 2009–2023 versus 88.7% by the Generalitat, while rail bodies lagged most as ADIF reached 48.6% and ADIF plus Renfe about 50.3%.
- In 2023 the State executed €1,028 million in Catalonia, equal to 9.3% of regionalized investment, with a 44.6% execution rate that trailed the national average of 82.6% and fell below Catalonia’s shares of GDP and population.
- Foment links the gap to a backlog of priority works, from Rodalies upgrades and the Sagrera hub to the L9/L10 metro and port and water projects, and it presses for institutional fixes after an investment consortia proposal failed in Congress and a 2024 oversight agency idea stalled.