Farewell to multilateralism

Five summits but no agreement. The joint meetings of prime ministers Zapatero or Rajoy with the leaders of Spain's autonomous communities have produced no progress on such key issues as state funding, immigration, water policy, unemployment or the economic crisis. Despite appearing on the agendas, they are all issues pushed into the background, depending on the interests of whatever party was in government at the time.

Thirteen years have passed since the first summit, when Zapatero challenged the communities to present an image of the “plural Spain” he had referred to in his electoral campaign. In the group photo, Zapatero appears flanked by the presidents of Catalonia and the Basque Country, Pasqual Maragall and Juan José Ibarretxe.

It was the first time a Basque president had attended a bilateral conference between the Spanish government and the autonomous communities. Tuesday will see the first without the presence of a Catalan president, due to the absence of Carles Puigdemont. Nor will today's Basque president, Ignacio Urkullu, attend.

The summits since 2004 have been y dominated by such issues as ETA and terrorism, or lesser concerns, such as the Mediterranean corridor or gender violence. The last summit took place in 2012, , following the surge of support for independence in Catalonia. While the PP party barons looked forward to scolding president Mas, Rajoy did not want a scene in favour of securing agreement on his deficit objectives, under pressure from the markets and the EU. On that occasion Mas spoke of the economic asphyxiation of the communities, while the rest backed Rajoy's recipe for a united Spain as the best way to face the crisis.