Only seven of the 43 Catalan regions have improved their competitiveness in the last year.

The Gran Penedès Business Federation and Foment del Treball are sounding the alarm, calling for new public policies in the face of the "generalized decline." There are also long-standing "structural weaknesses."

The economy of the vast majority of Catalan regions needs improvement. Of the 43, only seven have improved their competitiveness index, according to the annual report prepared by the Gran Penedès Business Federation (FEGP ) . This is the employers' association chaired by Neus Lloveras, which is part of Foment del Treball and brings together the productive sector of Alt and Baix Penedès, as well as Garraf.

The consultant and co-author of the study , David Moreno, expressed his concern yesterday at the "general decline" experienced by the vast majority of regions and also at the consolidation of territorial contrasts. The report has been conducted since 2004, and for the first time, there is no change in the top ten rankings. The remaining positions are, in this order, Barcelonès, Vallès Occidental, Baix Llobregat, Gironès, Vallès Oriental, Segrià, Maresme, Garraf, and Osona.

All of them are declining, and the only ones rising are Berguedà, Garrigues, Moianès, Noguera, Pallars Sobirà, Ribera d'Ebre, and Terra Alta. Faced with the stagnation, Moreno urged public administrators to "redefine" their policies in response to a model he saw as exhausted. Among the "structural weaknesses," he highlighted areas where the best-ranked EU territories stand out: quality of government and cohesion.

"We have historically been a region with significant economic capacity: we need to push hard to improve," said Salvador Guillermo, director of economics and research at Foment, at a press conference. He noted that, while the average for EU regions is 100, Catalonia scores 100.8 points, according to the latest territorial competitiveness study by the EU institutions. For all these reasons, Catalonia is moving away from Western European territories with a long industrial tradition in a context of change, in which Central European metropolitan areas such as Prague, Bratislava, Warsaw, and Ljubljana are gaining ground.

On average, Catalan regions are losing 1.1 points, and those that are growing are outside the metropolitan region. The least competitive, such as Alta Ribagorça and Terra Alta , share challenges such as a lack of critical mass—given the exodus of young people who decide to pursue training—and infrastructure.