The Board has only spent 2.5% of the recovery funds

The Junta de Extremadura has only spent 2.5% of the recovery funds assigned to the regional administration to date, barely 12.19 million euros out of a total of 496.6 million.

This is reflected in the report provided by the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration to the deputies participating in the subcommittee created within the Committee on European Affairs and Foreign Action for the study, monitoring and control of European funds.

According to this work, so far this year the region has been allocated just over 64.5 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, which brings together most of the funds from the European Union’s Next Generation program for recovery after the pandemic. Together with the 432 million that were delivered in 2021, it yields the aforementioned figure of 496.6 million.

Of that amount, 121.7 million euros is in the authorized phase, which corresponds to calls for grants or tenders for works that have already been published. The next stage of execution is called committed, which implies an awarded contract or an aid agreement. In that state there are 25.2 million. But in the highest step, the obligatory one, which supposes the recognition of the debt and therefore the step prior to payment, there are barely 12.19 million euros.

This highlights the complexity of managing the European funds of the Recovery Mechanism, which has specific objectives and defined indicators. In fact, the regional government has already had to modify calls for aid given the difficulties in allocating certain items.

Education and Employment

Practically all of the 12.19 million euros that have already been used corresponds to the Ministry of Education and Employment, which presents an expense of 12.14 million charged to the Recovery Mechanism.

Of that figure, most is from the project called digital skills for employment, which has an obligatory amount of about 5 million euros.

Likewise, just over 2.4 million euros have already been used in the Program for orientation, advancement and educational enrichment in centers of special complexity (PROA+).

1.66 million has also been allocated to the program to promote schooling in the first cycle of Early Childhood Education in publicly owned centers; as well as just over 1.1 million to the innovation and internationalization of Vocational Training.

The report prepared by the Treasury also includes that to date the Government has allocated 56 million euros to other entities in the autonomous community. The nearly 27 million for irrigation communities and 24.5 million for municipalities stand out, mainly for low-emission areas and urban transport.