The Confederation of Business Organizations of the Valencian Community (CEV) held its annual General Assembly this Tuesday, the first to account for a full fiscal year under the presidency of Vicente Lafuente, after succeeding Salvador Navarro. The Valencian business community used this event to reiterate historical demands for the regional economy, such as unlocking strategic infrastructures like the Valencia bypass tunnel and reforming the regional financing system.
However, the day also served for the employers' association to assert its role as an economic and social interlocutor. Taking advantage of the presence of the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, Lafuente called for greater participation of the CEV in the drafting of the Consell's budgets and urged the preservation of funds allocated to the business organization against proposed cuts by Vox during the amendment negotiations.
“"To defend our positioning and our relevant role, we need a strong and independent confederation, and for that, institutional participation must be recognized and adequately financed."
Lafuente further insisted that the organization is "the voice of businesses" and admitted he would have liked to comment on the budgets before their presentation, acknowledging the "complexity" of their preparation. He also seized the opportunity to urge the president not to modify the amounts allocated in the 2026 draft budget for unions and employers' associations, countering the threat from Santiago Abascal's party to reduce them during the negotiation and amendment process in Les Corts. In fact, the València City Council, through the Employment Department led by 'voxista' José Gosálbez, has already cut the Pact for Employment allocation to unions and employers by 35%.
“"It is a fair budget. It would not be understood if our participation in so many working groups were not recognized as it should be. We would be diminishing the value of social dialogue, protected by the Spanish Constitution."
Subsequently, in statements to the media, Lafuente reiterated that the current allocations in the draft budget presented by the Valencian administration for business organizations and unions are "correct and appropriate" given the "tremendous" participation work in sectoral tables and ongoing negotiations with the administration. He also made it clear that the CEV "costs considerably more money to participate than it receives." Therefore, he considered that "there should be no proposals to cut these allocations." "We simply state that our representativeness is covered and guaranteed by the Constitution, and that we do work that, even if I were not president of the employers' association, would be valued for how it helps and supports society. We would do society a disservice by speculating with this support," he added.
For his part, the president "took the glove" and pledged to dialogue with business leaders before presenting the budgets. "This will be the case from now on," he promised during his speech. In any case, he assured that they already include some of their requests, gathered over months of discussions with institutions like the employers' association. However, Pérez Llorca avoided commenting on the employers' second request to keep the allocated funds intact. Addressing the business leaders present, he championed the "institutional stability" of the Valencian Community, which, he highlighted, has attracted over 18 billion euros in private investment and fostered the creation of approximately 25,000 jobs in the coming years.
On another note, Lafuente reviewed the main lines of work developed since he took over the presidency of the employers' association last November. Among these, he highlighted the normalization of institutional relations, the recognition of the organization's internal diversity, and the recovery of the alliance with the Chambers of Commerce. He also took the opportunity to advocate for some of the main business demands for the Valencian Community, particularly in infrastructure and financing.
In this regard, he denounced that the Mediterranean Corridor continues to have an unresolved "bottleneck" in València due to the lack of a bypass tunnel, an infrastructure he considered key to the competitiveness of the Mediterranean arc. Therefore, he called for a "binding calendar" for its execution and recalled other pending actions, such as the rail connection to Alicante-Elche Airport, the CV-10, the Zero Discharge Plan, or progress on the Cantabrian-Mediterranean Corridor. He also warned that the saturation of the electrical grid is hindering business investments in the Valencian Community, stating that between February and April, 132.5 megawatts corresponding to six industrial projects were rejected due to a lack of connection capacity.
Lafuente also criticized the absence of new General State Budgets (PGE) and lamented that Spain has been operating for three years with the 2023 accounts extended, a situation that, in his view, harms the Valencian Community by limiting its corresponding investments. The president of the CEV argued that presenting the budgets is an "obligation" and reproached the Central Government for choosing to govern "by decree".
Regarding the reform of the regional financing system, he considered the current proposal to be improvable but urged the convening of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) and the opening of both bilateral and multilateral negotiations to reach agreements.
