Barcelona: Political Institutions in Catalonia

Political Institutions in Catalonia :

- The President of the Generalitat directs and coordinates the action of the executive council (Catalonian government)

- The executive Council has executive and administrative functions; The counselors are responsible for various departments (15 currently). Each department has its general secretariat and organizes itself in general directions. Exceptionally, the government can name commissions to which it assigns specific tasks.

- Parliament : representative of the Catalonian people, it legislates, approves the budget of the Generalitatcontrols the action of the government and elects the President of the Generalitat.

- President of the Generalitat: Pascual Maragall reaches the Presidency in December 2003 after more than 23 years of Jordi Pujol Soley (since the first elections of Generalitat in 1980).

- Official languages : Catalan and Castilian.