PP offensive in Brussels to speed up European funds and ensure they reach the real economy

The People's Party has presented an offensive in Brussels to speed up European funds and ensure that they reach the real economy. It has done so with a series of six parliamentary questions to the European Commission about the implementation of NextGenerationEU funds in Spain.

In these questions, which are signed by the spokeswoman of the PP in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, and by the MEP Isabel Benjumea, the PP demand to know the actual implementation of recovery funds in Spain given the lack of transparency of the Government of Sanchez.

The spokeswoman recalled that "inflation is still soaring and Spaniards are unable to make ends meet" and that in the face of this situation "European funds, together with tax cuts, are key to economic recovery". However, Montserrat regretted that this government "lacks management and has too much incompetence. The government's objective should be to reduce the harsh effects of the crisis, and Sánchez's government is not up to the task".

The first question refers to the loans contemplated in the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, of which Spain will imminently request around 70 billion euros, according to Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. In view of this announcement, the PP has asked the Commission whether it has received "any progress on the new national recovery plan" that needs to be presented in order to aspire to this funding.

In relation to the lack of participation in the management of the funds that the autonomous communities are denouncing, the PP wants to know if the Commission has received any information from the Spanish government "on the consultations or work it may be doing with local and regional authorities for these modifications and addenda".

The next question refers to the review of the direct aid already allocated, which is scheduled to take place before 30 June of this year. The aim of the review is to update the forecasts based on real GDP variation data and would affect 30% of the funds received, meaning that Spain could receive around 8 billion euros more, according to statements made by the Vice-President of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis.

For this reason, the PP has asked whether the Spanish government has presented "before the Commission any progress on modifications to the national recovery plan in order to aspire to the additional financing of non-refundable direct aid". The PP also asked about the participation of local and regional authorities in this process.

In a third question, they have directly referred to the lack of transparency of the Government on the real execution of the funds, "the money that reaches the final beneficiaries and that is the one that really has an impact on the economy and its productive fabric", since this figure "ceased to be published by the General Comptroller of the Public Administration on 31 August 2021". The PP has therefore asked the Commission whether it has the data on implementation in Spain as of 31 December 2021 and 30 April 2022.

In the following question, the MEPs recalled that, according to the latest budget execution data published by the General Intervention of the State Administration as of 30 April 2022, "Spain would only have executed payments amounting to 1,587 million euros out of the total of 28,025 million euros of final appropriations. In other words, during the first quarter of the year, only 5.66% of the total budgeted amount has been executed".

For this reason, they have asked the European Commission for "data on final execution in other Member States, which would allow a comparison between countries in terms of the execution of funds".

In a new question, the MEPs once again express their concern about cohesion funds, since the European Commission's Director General for European Funds, Marc Lemaître, has already expressed his concern in the past about Spain's delay in presenting the Partnership Agreement and sending the programmes.

For this reason, the PP has asked whether "Spain has already signed the Partnership Agreement for the Structural and Investment Funds 2021-2027, which is necessary to receive these territorial cohesion funds" and whether they consider that this delay "will considerably harm the Autonomous Regions in managing and implementing their projects".

In the last question, which was also signed by Francisco Millán Mon MEP, MEPs expressed their concern about the funds earmarked to combat depopulation, after the media reported that the Spanish government had left 35% of these funds unused, and asked the Commission whether these funds were "being used efficiently".

In addition, the Popular Party calls for "greater direct investment of these funds in regional projects instead of administrative burden", due to the risk that these funds are wasted without contributing to solving the real problem, which especially affects rural and inland areas, where there is "a great need for investment and reindustrialisation".