PP proposes an aggressive move in Brussels to streamline European funds so they can reach the real economy

The Popular Party has presented an offensive in Brussels to streamline European funds and ensure they reach the real economy. It has done so with a battery of six parliamentary questions to the European Commission about the execution of NextGenerationEU funds in Spain.

In these questions, which are signed by the Spokesperson of the PP in the European Parliament, Dolores Montserratand by MEP Isabel Benjumia, popular demand Know the actual performance Before the recovery fund in Spain Sanchez’s government’s lack of transparency,

The spokesman recalled that “inflation is skyrocketing and the Spaniards haven’t made it to the end of the month” and that in the face of this situation “European funds, along with tax cuts, are key to economic recovery, However, Montserrat lamented that This government “lacks management and has a lot of inefficiency”, The government should aim to mitigate the harsh effects of the crisis, and that is not the job of Sanchez.

According to Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, the first question refers to the expected loans in the recovery and resilience mechanism, of which Spain will request around 70,000 million euros. Prior to this announcement, the PP has asked the Commission whether it has received “any progress on the new National Recovery Plan” that is required to be submitted to aspire to this funding.

With regard to the lack of participation in the management of funds being condemned by the autonomous communities, the PP would like to know whether the Commission has received any “consultation or information from the Spanish Government regarding work that it may consider to be local and such amendments and appendices”. Regional Authority for

The next question refers to Direct Aid Review Already foreshadowed by the rules of funding for before June 30 of this year. The purpose of the review is to update forecasts based on real GDP variation data and will affect 30% of the funds received, so that Spain can receive around 8,000 million euros more, according to statements from the commission’s vice president. Valdis Dombrowski.

For this reason, the PP has asked whether the Spanish government has “submitted to the Commission any progress on amendments to the National Recovery Plan to aspire to additional financing for non-reimbursable direct aid.” Moreover, even in this case, the popular has asked for the involvement of local and regional authorities in the process.

In the third question, he has directly referred to the government’s lack of transparency on the actual execution of the fund, “the money that reaches the ultimate beneficiaries and which actually impacts the economy and its productive fabric”. Since this figure “stopped being published by the general intervention of public administration on August 31, 2021.” For this reason, the PP has asked the Commission whether it has performance data in Spain for December 31, 2021 and April 30, 2022.

In the following question, the MEP recalled that as per the latest budget performance data published by the State Administration General Intervention As of April 30, 2022, «Spain will have paid only EUR 1,587 million out of a total of 28,025 million fixed credits., In other words, it has executed only 5.66% of the total budget during the first quarter of the year.

Therefore, he has asked the European Commission «Final performance data in other member stateswhich allows comparison between countries in terms of the execution of funds».

Concerns about the Regional Integration Fund

In a new question, MEPs once again show their concern about the reconciliation fund, as the European Commission’s Director General of the European Fund, Marc Lematre, has already expressed his concern about Spain’s delay in the presentation. Association agreement and sending programs.

For this reason, the PP has asked whether “Spain has already signed the Association Agreement of the Structural and Investment Fund 2021–2027 required to welcome these regional cohesion funds” and if they believe that this delay is “considerable”. will harm” autonomous communities that manage and implement their own projects.

In a previous question, which was also signed by MEP Francisco Milan Mon, popular people have expressed their concern about Funds earmarked to tackle population demonetisationAfter it was published by the media that the Spanish government had left 35% of this item unexecuted, they asked the commission whether these funds were being “executed efficiently”.

In addition, popular people «a.» ask for More direct investment of these funds for regional projects rather than administrative burden», due to the risk that these funds are wasted without contributing to solving the real problem, which particularly affects rural and inland areas, where “investment and reindustrialization is in great need”.