The Consell will ask the Government for around 1,500 million euros per year for the regional leveling fund while the financing system is not reformed. This is the approximate figure given this Thursday by the Minister of Finance, Economy and Public Administration, Ruth Merino, after meeting with the Commission of experts for the reform of the regional financing system. "Approving a leveling fund is simple; it is about wanting to do it and that is why I am going to ask for it where it is necessary, how it is necessary and to whomever it is necessary so that it is included in the 2024 PGE," the counselor assured.
"After the disappointment of seeing that it seems that there is no intention to address the reform of the system, the Valencian Community needs that temporary leveling fund that equals the average while it is not reformed and that is what we are going to demand," Merino said. Although the amount is not definitive, Merino has explained that it would be around that amount and has said that the work of the Department and the Commission meeting today will be to update the numbers to claim from the central Executive, with "rigorous numbers" and of according to "technical data".
Likewise, Merino has announced that the Consell-Corts mixed commission will be convened in the coming days. The parliamentary groups will also be informed of the renewal of said commission and the content of the last Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF). "We are going to do our job and we are going to be totally vindictive, without tepidity, in the reform of the system," he assured.
Regarding the forgiveness of the Valencian debt, Merino has avoided commenting but has emphasized that the Generalitat Valenciana will demand "without hesitation" the reform of the financing system because the current model is "unfair for Valencians." Meanwhile, he defends that the regional leveling fund will be a demand to equalize the Valencian coffers with those of the rest of the autonomous communities.
For his part, Francisco Pérez, research director of the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie), spoke on behalf of the experts and commented that the meeting has served to verify the interest that continues to exist on the part of both the Consell and the experts for continuing to collaborate in a task relevant to the interest of the Valencian Community. Pérez recently assured at an event on the Per Un Finançament Just platform that the ERC-PSOE pact for debt forgiveness was "feasible and applicable" for Valencian financing and estimated Valencian forgiveness at around 27 billion euros.
Asked today about this figure, he pointed out that it should be updated and recalled that, as he already clarified, to obtain this figure 100% of the relative underfinancing is taken into account due to the distance from the average of the autonomous communities (18,000 million euros) and 50% of the collective underfinancing that all the autonomous communities suffered during the period of the Great Recession and which is the part that would correspond to the same treatment as Catalonia in debt forgiveness (9.5 billion euros.)
In her speech, the Minister also referred to the last meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council held in Madrid on December 11.
From that meeting, Merino acknowledged leaving "disappointed" by the response of the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero. "We went without much hope, but I demanded that he take out of the drawer those technical reports that he does have on the reform because it is an urgent need for the Valencian Community," explained the spokesperson for the Valencian government.
Merino also commented, as President Carlos Mazón already advanced in an interview this week, that there will be a summit with Murcia and Andalusia to address the reform of the financing system and added that Castilla-La Mancha could be added to it.
