Thursday, March 28

Madrid takes the Government before the Supreme Court for the “arbitrary” distribution of European funds | Madrid


The Government of the Community of Madrid has decided to file an appeal with the Supreme Court against a decree of the central Executive that distributes nine million euros of European funds between the Basque Country, Navarra, Extremadura and the Valencian Community. In the opinion of the councilors of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the decision of the Council of Ministers is “arbitrary”, lacks transparency, and does not respond to the mechanisms for the distribution of community aid decided in the different sectoral conferences. This was explained this Wednesday by the Regional Minister of Economy and Finance, Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, during the press conference after the Madrid Governing Council meeting.

“On August 24, the order was published indicating the amount of funds that each community was going to manage,” said the counselor, who detailed that Madrid has already received 994 million euros of European funds intended to finance recovery from the health crisis caused by the coronavirus. “Our surprise comes when in October the Council of Ministers, by royal decree, assigns a direct subsidy to the Basque Country, Navarra, Valencian Community and Extremadura, without justification, and regardless of the approved distribution and the established channel”, he has maintained. “In our opinion, that supposes an arbitrary use of funds, and if we do not lift our finger, we may find that this is the first in a long series, and there we would not know how many resources we would be talking about.”

According the royal decree published in the Official State Gazette, the nine million euros would be distributed as follows: three for Navarra, and two for Extremadura, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community. Their destination, according to that text, are projects of “especially vulnerable groups” and “entrepreneurship and micro-enterprises.”

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Brussels endorsed the first reforms of Spain’s recovery plan and authorized the delivery of 10 billion in aid at the beginning of December. Before and after that milestone, the Community of Madrid has criticized the criteria for the distribution of funds, considering them not very transparent and designed to harm regional interests. A thesis that the government spokesman for the Diaz Ayuso Executive, Enrique Ossorio, insisted on this Wednesday without any nuance.

“We are very unhappy with the distribution of European funds,” said the Minister of Education. “It is very sad that sectarian or partisan criteria are used for its distribution. It is one of the saddest things that can happen ”, he added. And about the complaint before the Supreme Court, he added: “This is a flagrant case.”

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In fact, the regional president announced at the end of last year that she plans to bring her clash with Sánchez to Brussels over the distribution of European funds. “There is a total lack of transparency,” he said in December.

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