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Spain Clears Spending Ceiling but Budgets Face Sharp Regional and Party Roadblocks

The Council of Ministers' approval lets the government prepare 2027 accounts while financing reform talks and partisan demands leave final passage uncertain.

Overview

  • The Council of Ministers approved the spending ceiling and stability targets this week, a required procedural step that allows the government to draft and present the 2027 General State Budgets.
  • The Economy Ministry will send a detailed draft of a new autonomous financing model to regional governments between Wednesday and Friday and has scheduled a technical meeting for July 14 to discuss it.
  • Regional governments run by the People's Party have formally rejected the reform as a bloc and the government is trying to win them over individually before a July 29 Consejo de Política Fiscal y Financiera vote.
  • Junts has said it will not enter budget talks unless a long list of demands — including payments it says are owed, Catalan language status in the EU, immigration powers and amnesty measures — are met and Podemos has warned it will oppose large increases in defence spending.
  • If the budgets proceed they would raise spending about 6.6% to a record €226,032 million with bigger allocations for housing, scholarships, care and research, a package that shapes services for citizens and recalibrates political incentives ahead of 2027 elections.