Challenges and Difficulties Facing Catalan Local Authorities in Relation to Transparency. The Starting Point

In recent years, transparency has become an important issue on the political agenda and this has led to some intense legislative activity on the part of all State institutions. To a large extent this reflects the need to respond to a growing demand for mechanisms and instruments that provide information on the authorities and allow their activity to be monitored. The purpose of this article is to analyse where Catalan local councils are starting from in dealing with the transparency legislation coming into force. First, we take a brief look at the regulations that have been approved, in order to identify the aspects that have the most bearing on the municipal sphere. Then we analyse the real situation of Catalan council websites immediately prior to the roll-out of the regulations. The purpose of this is two-fold: to find out the general profile of the contents and to compare that with some of the requirements envisaged by the regulations. In order to develop the latter point further, we have created some indices of compliance with the Catalan and State laws that make it possible to assess the real situation of the Catalan portals in relation to the regulations. On the basis of this analysis, we highlight the main shortcomings but also the elements that have become important and could be useful tools for the full implementation of the regulations in the future.