The Government considers that it is complying with an adequate rhythm in the deployment of European funds and that "the focus" must now be placed on the autonomous communities, which accumulate a delay that in the First Vice Presidency is considered worrying. That is why the Ministry of Economy has today asked the directors of the branch to focus on those projects that have the greatest difficulties and, if necessary, to discard them. The Sectoral Conference for Regulatory Improvement and Business Climate took place this Monday in a climate of "cooperation" between the different executives, according to the vice president, Nadia Calviño, but with the critical position of the Community of Madrid, which denounces that there is effective co-governance.
Calviño has demanded that the autonomies carry out changes in the projects that aspire to receive European funds but that also have great difficulties for their development as soon as possible. In this sense, the person in charge of the Government's economic policy has asked to "reassign" these aids to other calls to "take advantage of a one hundred percent execution" of transfers and loans.
For the Government, the deployment of European funds has reached an acceptable "cruising speed", despite criticism from the opposition, and believes that it is the autonomous communities that should give execution a twist. Calviño explained that in the first days of 2023 the central administration has executed 3,000 million of the aid committed for this year, which represents 13% of the assigned budget. In total, the State has already resolved 19,200 million, 85% of the total.
According to the data provided by Calviño, the autonomous communities have launched calls for more than 50% of the allocated funds, a total of 20,600 million. However, they have barely solved 18% of them, about 4,000 million. Although the economic vice president has recognized the efforts of the different governments, of any political color, she has claimed that it is time to put another foot on the pedal. Between autonomies and town halls they are managing 28,000 million.
Calviño has explained to the regional economic councilors the situation of the addendum, which the Government wants to present to Brussels before the end of February. All those present have expressed their agreement to reinforce autonomy and strategic industrialization in the energy, agri-food, industrial, technological and digital fields, and have also valued the new Part of industrial decarbonization as positive. The central and regional governments have also agreed to hold a meeting in the coming days to analyze the new 20,000 million fund that will channel the loans towards investments by the autonomous communities.
The Community of Madrid, for its part, does not agree with Calviño's diagnosis and has used a harsh tone with the Government. For the Minister of Economy and Finance, Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, there is an "absence of co-governance between the central government and the autonomous communities in the design of European funds" because "regional proposals have not been taken into account". "The budget and the projects already closed in the different Sectoral Conferences are distributed to us without taking into account the economic and social characteristics of each autonomous community or our contributions," he criticized. According to Economy, the rest of the autonomies, including some of the PP such as Andalusia, Castilla y León or Murcia, have distanced themselves from this discourse.
Lasquetty has also criticized the design of the addendum: the Government is making "the same mistakes" since, he has denounced, his proposals have not yet been collected. The Executive responds that these demands are being studied and designed. "If the Government tells the European Commission that there is participation of the autonomous communities in the definition of the addendum, it will be telling a falsehood", the Community of Madrid has insisted.
Lasquetty assures that Madrid has received to date 1,974 million of which 71% are already being processed. In addition, in 2022, 537 million were executed, 93% of those budgeted for that year.
