Catalonia and Aragon are in a hurry with their choices: "Or joint application or none"

Generalitat de Catalunya and Government of Aragon expedite joint candidacy presentation options of the Pyrenees to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, a unitary formula de facto only considered by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and the Government.

“Or joint candidacy or there will be no candidacy”, The various sources involved in the negotiations of the Olympic project in the Pyrenees have confirmed to Efe, where the news could take place soon on its winding journey.

While it is true that the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, set May 20 as the deadline for a specific agreement, thinks not to delay in respect of other competing candidates, there is no specific deadline to present the Pyrenean candidacy, as recalled by the chief adviser to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Pere Miró.

The Olympic candidacy of a city or region is always presented by the Olympic Committee of the State to which they belong, in this case the COE.

In this case, the Spanish Pyrenean project will face a completely different application process in terms of form, requirements and deadlines, for example, those conducted by Madrid for 2012, 2016 and 2020.

From the very beginning, the aspiring regions or countries — that’s the first difference: before they were just cities — had no set time to present their intentions to the IOC, because the new award rules approved by the body this in 2018 implies that at any time “the interested party may enter into a continuous conversation without commitment to the IOC”.

So far, The IOC Future Venues Commission analyzes cities or regions what their project is, what are the chances of it continuing and what changes need to be made to gain efficiency and sustainability -basic concept-. And when the best option has been determined, it is notified to the Executive of the body and it is submitted to the vote of the assembly.

But first, in the case of its Spanish candidacy for 2030, there should be a three-way agreement between the COE and Catalonia and Aragon, after the latter distanced itself from the technical agreement signed between the other parties in April 1, considering that the distribution of disciplines favors Catalonia.

Aragon does not give battle for the defeated and its president, Javier Lambán, insisted that his Government will sit “until the end” in negotiations to produce a “balanced” and “equal footing” candidacy.

The community will not participate, in its own words, in a project assuming that the “devaluation” of the Pyrenees and the Pyrenean counties, therefore, does not feel its own.

The Aragonese community is waiting to learn about the new COE proposal. Aragón expressed its rejection in the first technical document, signed by the Generalitat and the central governmentand make a counterproposal that is not accepted.

Nor does it share the new proposal for the distribution of evidence, considering that it is still not a balance between the two communities and the modalities assigned to Aragón, although now all the valleys are included, is “marginal”.

The Aragonese Government aims that at least some alpine skiing events be held on its territory.

Lambán is also disgusted with the partisan position that, in his opinion, the COE maintainsand note that when Aragón was proposed to participate in this candidacy, his only condition was that the community he led would never be a comparsa or subaltern of Catalonia.

The Generalitat, for its part, remains in the same position as in previous weeks. “Nothing has changed”, they affect from Plaça Sant Jaumewhere they reaffirmed the agreement closed with the COE and the Government, and they did not even look at the latest proposal on the table to break the blockade, which suggested adding freestyle tests in Aragón in exchange for figure skating in Barcelona.

But Catalonia does not think of giving up more land a priori and is considered to have always acted responsibly and honestly, both in the technical work and in the agreement he signed on April 1st.

“Catalonia loves the Winter Games“,” Catalonia does not give up on the Games “, the Government spokeswoman, Patrícia Plaja, has repeated in recent weeks, phrases reflecting the same possibility of a joint candidacy, but alone also, a scenario that will only emerge if negotiations with Aragón end in sinking and that, in any case, must have the support of the COE.

But at this point, the COE and the Government are thinking of only one option: There may be agreement for a joint Pyrenean candidacy or no Winter Olympics in 2030 in Spain.