Legislation
Spain – Government commits to getting Salou and Vila-seca resort underway
By James - 9 February 2023
The Government of Catalonia signed an agreement for its budget in which it announced that it would evaluate “completing the processes related to the start of the Salou and Vila-seca Recreational and Tourist Consortium project” during the first semester of 2023.
The Government of Pere Aragonès and the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) reached an agreement that allows the approval of the government’s budget for this year. The agreement consists of two documents: one 26 page document covers the budgetary measures while another three page document includes the commitments to promote “major infrastructure of the country” that the PSC put forward as a condition for their approval of the budget. These include the Hard Rock project as well as other major infrastructure projects which will lead to jobs.
According to the document the Vila-seca and Salou project will go ahead, “after final approval of the Urban Development Plan”. In addition, the government laid out its plans to “maintain the availability of the land by the company, as a step prior to the evolution of the project.”
Salvador Illa, First Secretary of the PSC is one of the main supporters of the project since the party expects it to generate “more than a billion euros of investment and more than 13,000 jobs, generating consensus between the social and economic agents, and the municipalities of the area.”
In May 2018, the Government of Catalonia declared that it had given Hard Rock Entertainment World permission to build a casino and leisure complex in the southern towns of Vila-seca and Salou. However the project has been beset by problems most notably over planning permission. The two local municipalities are also unable to agree on how taxes from the new resort will be divided.
