The European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, better known as Next Generation funds, are providing public administrations with a strong economic injection, but also certain difficulties in the processing and execution of these contributions designed to compensate for the effects of the crisis. caused by the pandemic. A few days ago, the execution data corresponding to the end of February was released, according to which the Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha and Valencia lead the ranking with 64%, 44% and 41%, respectively, of the value of the projects financed by these funds already executed. In the case of Barcelona, the state of execution of the funds in the last update was 47% of the total amount assigned to the City Council.
To date, Barcelona City Council and the entities of the municipal group (companies, institutes, agencies...) have raised a total of 277.7 million euros to contribute to the financing of 25 projects. Of this amount, at the end of February, more than 131 million euros had already been executed. The amount that the City Council will receive could still increase since it is very likely that the Government will open a new call to allocate the existing remainders. As a general rule, Next Generation funds would have to be executed by the end of 2025, although for some very highly complex projects it is likely that the deadline will be extended until 2026.
The 25 municipal projects financed in this way correspond to six different management areas. The main package (108.9 million) is for four projects in the area of Mobility, Infrastructure and Urban Services. A total of 68.6 million is allocated to Housing and Urban Planning; 53.7 million to 10 Economy and Economic Promotion projects; 10.2 to resources and digital transformation (3 projects), and 1.2 million to Culture, Education, Sports and Life Cycles.
Municipal managers are convinced that Barcelona City Council will execute 100% of the resources received within the established deadline. Of the 25 projects financed with Next Generation funds, 8 have already been fully executed. Furthermore, to date, the justification for 3 projects has been presented, for an amount greater than 6 million euros, and before the end of the first half of this year, the justification for another 7 actions will have to be presented.
One of the programs that will receive a boost from European funds is the rehabilitation, improvement and conditioning (especially based on energy efficiency criteria) of homes. This economic contribution must be noted both in the City Council's own public housing stock and in the neighborhood communities that access aid through a rehabilitation support office.
Paving and pedestrianization of public spaces and control systems for low-emission zones also benefit from these European funds; the deployment, both in parking lots of the municipal company BSM and through electric stations at street level, of the infrastructure plan to facilitate the use of electric vehicles; or the improvement of public healthcare equipment and the application of robotics and artificial intelligence in home care programs.
