The Minister of Economy, Finance, and European Funds, Carolina España, has highlighted that the excellence in the management of European funds by the Andalusian Government has contributed to driving the social and economic transformation of the community, both in job creation, new transportation, health or educational infrastructures, in the improvement of housing, and in access to better drinking water supply and wastewater treatment. The Minister explained that Andalusia has managed to grow and advance in convergence «with a surgical management capacity that has taken advantage of every cent, including each one from European funds.» «Money from Europe has always arrived in Andalusia, but it is in how we are investing it by the Government of Juanma Moreno where the difference lies with the previous governments of the Junta,» added the Minister.
During a parliamentary appearance, España wanted to specify the impact of these resources that have helped to grow, for example, more than 45,600 companies, or have translated into support for 600 full-time researchers, while another 1,100 have been able to handle equipment acquired with these funds.
European resources have also allowed increasing the capacity of renewable energy production by 228 megawatts or improving the energy rating of 8,500 homes, as well as promoting public transportation by allocating funds to the improvement and construction of transportation infrastructures, such as subways or trams, which are already used by over 880,000 Andalusian passengers. They have been able to build or improve 514 kilometers of bike lanes and trails and 914 kilometers of roads.
In terms of water, European FEDER funds have contributed to 668,000 Andalusians having better drinking water supply, and another 475,000 have better wastewater treatment. Likewise, they have been used to rehabilitate over 5,100 homes and build, improve, or equip educational centers for 363,000 Andalusian students, including the bioclimatization of 454 centers in 169 municipalities. Similarly, the support of these funds for Andalusian public health centers entails improvements for over 8 million people with the construction of 69 new infrastructures, including 7 hospitals and 5 day hospitals.
On the other hand, the European Social Fund has helped 1.3 million Andalusians, half of whom are women. The various initiatives of this plan have resulted in 44,000 people participating in orientation and job insertion programs, and one in every 2 has improved their job situation; more than 42,000 people have been assisted by programs against social exclusion, half of whom were working or seeking work at the end of the program; and 15,000 homeless people or residents in substandard housing have been supported.
Likewise, these funds have provided support in some of their various programs to more than 800,000 students of all educational stages and users of complementary services, from school reinforcement to school transportation or bilingual education. They have also allowed supporting 110,000 Higher Vocational Training students, highlighting the success of dual vocational training with 88% of participants qualifying. And they have facilitated the incorporation of over 2,000 additional teachers specialized in special educational needs.
And in terms of youth employment, over 53,000 Andalusians (half of them women) have joined various employment programs, with a special focus on rural areas or long-term unemployed, of which 31.4% were working six months after participating in the programs.
During her intervention, Carolina España pointed out how, despite being strategic resources and a priority for the advancement of Andalusia, «when we arrived at the Junta six years ago, we found a deeply deficient management of European funds, with grant calls delayed up to five years or unexplained files that blocked payments. «From 2014 to 2018, only €1.509 billion had been certified out of the more than €10.594 billion of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, barely 14% of the total,» she detailed, «the rest, 86%, more than €9 billion, were fully executed by this Government.»
In this sense, the Minister recalled that an order regulating basic management procedures had to be implemented to provide legal security to the administration and beneficiaries, and to establish a continuous improvement action plan reinforcing internal controls, digitalization, and preventive auditing, which allowed correcting errors that had forced the return of funds. «We thus achieved historical records of annual certification, four times more than the previous average, and laid the foundation for sustainable and efficient management.»
Increased pace of execution and certification
In short, she said, it is «a new way of managing European funds, with normative and regulatory improvements; with greater controls, both prior and subsequent, ensuring their effectiveness; with new teams of officials in all departments with specific training and adaptability that allows them to quickly and flexibly respond to problems, as we saw with Covid, reprogramming the various funds to provide a quick and effective response, and now certifying six times more than in the previous period.»
Thanks to these measures, the Finance Minister stated, «we have exhausted the allocation of FEDER and FSE from the 14-20 Framework, with completed payments and final stamp of approval from the Commission for both items, focused on the productive sector, social cohesion, public services, and infrastructures, within the allowed deadline until 2025.» And it has been done, she added, «multiplying by five the pace of fund execution, because at the rate at which the PSOE governments were executing funds, it would have taken 40 years to complete the execution of the 14-20 Framework.»
The Minister emphasized that «this new, more efficient and orderly management approach is now being repeated with the 2021-2027 framework, which amounts to around €8.5 billion for the region.»
Likewise, she referred to the Next Generation EU Funds, «the largest economic stimulus tool ever funded by the European Union.» Andalusia has an allocation of €4.262 billion, 17.7% of the total, and has already reached a level of 81% in authorizations, and 67% in disbursements (€2.854 billion). The Minister lamented, however, that this mechanism designed by the State without the participation of the communities, which limits the investment capacity of those funds» or the possibility of a direct response to the needs of the population.
The challenge of maintaining decentralization
Carolina España has linked this experience with the proposal for the recentralization of funds that the European Commission has put forward for the future Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, which would distance these cohesion funds from their main recipients, the regions. A challenge, she said, that adds to the proposal for greater priority to policies such as defense, competitiveness, or energy transition to the detriment of social cohesion and the expansion to new members with weaker economies.
Facing this new scenario, the Minister of Economy has advocated, as President of the Junta Juanma Moreno has done in various European forums, for maintaining cohesion as an essential pillar of the European Union, «because an innovative and strong Europe needs cohesive regions, without convergence there will be no robust single market, nor sustainable growth.» Likewise, she rejected the proposal for centralized management that distances decisions from territorial reality and pointed out the need to include vulnerability criteria in climate and water investments for southern regions, as well as to demand robust budgets, in line with the challenges facing Europe, without sacrificing cohesion.» It is time to decide, she concluded, «whether Europe builds balances or deepens fractures.»
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FUENTE